Baroda well placed for win

Baroda 308 (Praveen Kumar 6-83) and 17 for 1 need 155 runs to beat Uttar Pradesh 269 and 210 (RB Patel 5-75)
Scorecard

The Super League Ranji Trophy match between Baroda and Uttar Pradesh sprang to life after two turgid days, and the scales are titled towards Baroda. At the end of the third day's play, Baroda need 155 runs with nine wickets in hand for a win that should seal their place in the semi-finals.

The turnaround to the meandering match, though, was provided by UP bowler Praveen Kumar, who bowled with aggression and accuracy to help UP bowl Baroda, who started the day at 259 for 5 in reply to UP's 269, out for 308. That opened the game up, as UP - two of their frontline batsmen (Shivakant Shukla and Suresh Raina) injured - came with the intentions of going for broke, and got bowled out for 210 in 59.1 overs.

Before the start of the play, Mohammad Kaif would have accepted it as a gift had somebody offered them to bowl Baroda out before lunch. Neither the pitch had helped them yesterday nor had Baroda shown any intention of going for quick runs. Every wicket had to be earned and then suddenly things turned on the third morning. A first-innings deficit, a foregone conclusion, became doubtful as Kumar removed Irfan Pathan junior and Ajit Bhoite in the fourth over of the innings. Pathan hadn't added to his overnight score by then, Baroda had added one. Eventually, the overnight batsman Pinal Shah took Baroda over the line. Kumar finished his five-for with a short ball that was too good for tailender Rajesh Pawar, who had to play at it and lob a catch to slip. After getting his sixth wicket and Baroda's last, Kumar rushed towards the dressing room: he must have had quick runs on his mind.

But Kaif knew he would be tired after sending down 38 overs, eight of them this morning, and chose to open with Tanmay Srivastava and Rohit Prakash Srivastava. Shukla, the other opener, had not fielded in Baroda's innings, and like Raina, would not be able to bat before No. 7. If any of the three - Kumar, Shukla, or Raina - were eager to bat, their message was heard by other UP batsmen. Kumar was in when the fourth wicket fell in the 28th over, Raina in 33rd, and Shukla in the 34th. The makeshift top order showed lack of application and that was all a fast and accurate Rakesh Patel needed.

In Patel's first over, Tanmay was not so much as beaten as he was slow to bring his bat down and found the off stump out of the ground. In his second over, Patel made Kaif play at one that was best left alone and got the edge. His accuracy prior to that had a lot to do with Kaif committing to the ball that had pitched sufficiently outside the off stump and had moved away a bit. Kaif's wicket, as it usually happens with UP, spelt panic among UP batsmen. As hard as it seemed Ali Moratza was trying to get out, he could not succeed until he had made 45. He was dropped by Himanshu Jadhav at gully for 14, an edge off Irfan Pathan senior fell short of wicket-keeper when he was 24, and Shah missed a sharp catch off left-arm spinner Pawar when he was 29. A direct-hit from Pathan senior at mid-off found Mortaza short when going for a single, thus ending an 80-run third wicket stand between Rohit and Mortaza.

Rohit himself played the best innings among the UP batsmen but got out to a horrible pull shot which went straight back to bowler Patel, in somewhat similar fashion as Wasim Jaffer's shot in the Durban Test. Rohit made 58. Patel went on to get a five-for as UP could get only 210 on a wicket that was still good for batting. Patel himself testified to that, saying the only heartening sign for him was the bounce he was able to extract.

Pathan junior had a better day with the ball; he even showed glimpses of the swing that had made him famous at international level, but only for a three-over spell before lunch. After the interval, a changed man emerged, who was trying far too many things, bowling both from over and round the stumps, unable to find the swing again, unable to stem the runflow, and bowling five no-balls, two wides, and giving away two boundaries as byes. He ended up with one wicket from his 13 overs for 59 runs. In the context of the match, he was perhaps over-bowled, his namesake getting only five overs in which he troubled the batsmen.

What came as a blessing for UP has ended as a bane. But with previous second-innings scores of 194, 178, and 100 for 7 in this year's Ranji Trophy, we should have known better. Yet it would be folly if Baroda think they are through, given the tenacity and persistence and tenacity Kumar and Shalabh Srivastava showed in the first innings. As a UP player commented during Kumar's onslaught in the morning, he can get half the dressing room out with the aggression he shows on the field. UP will need all that and more.