Srivastava and Kaif keep UP in the hunt
Srivastava scored a fluent century, Kaif's effort was more circumspect, and between them they added unbeaten 242 runs in what has essentially become a first-innings match
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Tanmay Srivastava and Mohammad Kaif played in their last league match of the season just as they did in their first. Srivastava scored a fluent century, Kaif's effort was more circumspect, and between them they put on an unbeaten 242-run stand. Uttar Pradesh lost only Suresh Raina on the day, moving towards Karnataka's 511 in what has essentially become a first-innings match.
In the first match, against Andhra, the two had added 285 to get UP a first-innings lead. Here they batted together for 349 minutes, and ended the third day 217 short of a first-innings lead that will enhance their chances of making the quarter-finals. The pair were brought together by the dismissal of Raina who looked uncomfortable against the short stuff. He fended NC Aiyappa on a few occasions but finally got going with a trademark cover drive. The next ball, another bouncer was, however, top-edged to Sunil Raju at fine leg. UP had added nine to their overnight 44 for 1 by then.
UP arrived needing an outright win to be safe, but could have been in danger of collapse. The good thing was, however, that two of their most reliable batsmen were out in the middle, on a pitch for which you could take along camping material when going in to bat. Srivastava had progressed almost unnoticed to 29 yesterday, and continued in similar fashion today. Kaif was not as comfortable to begin with, inside-edging R Vinay Kumar past Thilak Naidu early. In Vinay Kumar's next over he took a blow on the body, before pulling out an exquisite punch-drive straight down the ground.
Kaif continued in his careful way while Srivastava kept capitalising on error. The partnership began slowly, reflecting Kaif's cautious start. In the first 17.3 overs, the two added only 27, Kaif scoring 12 off 59. After the first drinks break, though, having sized up the pitch, the batsmen started scoring more freely. Kaif cover-drove Aiyappa, Srivastava square-cut Sunil Joshi to reach his half century, and followed it up with two boundaries in the next over.
Vinay Kumar, brought in for a spell just before lunch, managed to trouble Kaif again, the only period of contest between bat and ball through the day. He beat Kaif with one that held its line in the first over, got an outside edge that avoided the slips in his next, and then beat him with a straighter delivery again. From the other end, though, Srivastava took Sunil Raju for three lovely cover-driven boundaries. He hit one between mid-off and extra cover, the next to the right of cover, and another stepping down and hitting inside out. The two had added 91 by lunch, 31 of those scored by Kaif.
Resuming on 92, Srivastava got a streaky outside edge to move to 99, and then took a single to just wide of mid-off to reach his third first-class century. The century gift was four overthrows. Post-lunch, Kaif looked more positive, while also blunting the bowling. Joshi bowled one over of instant replays: the ball always full, Kaif always getting his front foot down to the pitch of the ball, defending it straight back, the ball stopping just by Joshi.
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Karnataka's fields were confoundingly defensive for a team who had made 511 and a run-rate of less than three suggested as much. Srivastava played most of his innings with a deep point in place, and singles were readily available for him. Kaif would go back into his defensive mode, before suddenly stepping out and hitting the spinners over the in-field. The immediate response to such hits was sending a fielder back, and then Kaif would go back to picking up his singles.
By tea, Karnataka were a tired lot, having tried seven bowlers without much success. The partnership had reached 173 in 66.3 overs. Srivastava had slowed down a bit to reach 125, and Kaif had sped up a bit to reach 70, off 214 deliveries.
Post-tea Kaif gave Karnataka their last chance of the day. He stepped out to hit C Raghu, but failed to connect well enough and hit it just wide of mid-off. Ganesh Satish, substituting for Uthappa, dropped the catch. After that Kaif stepped up another gear, moving from 88 to 100 with three boundaries: a pull, a leg glance, and a perfectly-placed cover-drive.
One of the UP fans in the crowd chose to make his presence in the ground felt then, fully clothed thankfully, and came and shook both batsmen's hands and ran away peacefully. Srivastava reached the last milestone of the day, converting his second century of the season into a second 150.
Although they were still short of taking three points by some way, they got some good news from elsewhere. Baroda, one of their competitors for the quarter-final spot, lost outright to Tamil Nadu and were almost knocked out of the reckoning. UP, though, have a brittle middle-order and will need more from Kaif and Srivastava to take three points from here.
Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo