UP have Mumbai in a corner

Uttar Pradesh were in a position of considerable strength at stumps on the penultimate day of their three day Vijay Merchant Trophy final against Mumbai at the Medical college ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. They scored 297 in their first innings and had taken eight Mumbai wickets for 145 by stumps.

UP, resuming at 240 for six, added another 57 runs in the morning. The overnight not out batsmen R Elahi and SK Upadhayay made their seventh wicket partnership worth 102 runs off 3 overs. While Elahi scored 63, Upadhayay got 54. SG Pandey took three of the four wickets to fall today and finished with four for 59.

Mumbai lost wickets steadily and there were only two brief partnerships that provided some substance. SS Thakur (39) and P Valthaty (10) added 49 runs for the second wicket off 19 overs and then VA Indulkar and skipper H Ravle who each got 35, put on 42 runs for the sixth wicket off 17.2 overs. But generally N Chaudhery (3 for 53) and R Jaiswal (2 for 40) kept the Mumbai batsmen in check.