White-ball dashers Rinku Singh (71 batting) and Dhruv Jurel (54 batting) curbed their natural flamboyance and morphed into red-ball grinders to carry Uttar Pradesh out of the woods on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy cricket match against Kerala at the SD College ground on Friday.
The unbroken 120-run sixth wicket stand between the duo stalled Kerala’s hopes of wrapping the innings quickly after it had reduced Uttar Pradesh to 124 for five. The visitors ended the day in a comfortable position of 244 for five after play was called off due to bad light.
Rinku, after surviving a half chance early in his innings, batted with assurance on the tricky surface. The left-hander played the deliveries on merit and flayed the loose balls. He brought up his fifty in style, depositing Jalaj Saxena over long-on for a six.
Jurel was very much the silent partner in the blossoming partnership early on. However, he displayed his range of strokes on both sides of the wicket to compliment Rinku as the duo frustrated the host in the final session.
Earlier, overnight rain and bad light delayed the start by one-and-half hours. Uttar Pradesh skipper Aryan Juyal bravely chose to bat under a cloudy sky.
M.D. Nidheesh, who troubled the openers early on with his bounce, trapped opener Samarth Singh (10) in front with a delivery that barely rose above the batter’s knee.
Juyal, on eight, survived a chance early when Rohan Kunnummal dropped him in the slips off Nidheesh. But the batter couldn’t cash on his reprieve as he feathered a catch to wicketkeeper Vishnu Vinod off Vaisakh Chandran for 28.
The UP skipper, by then, had added 58 runs for the second wicket with Priyam Garg to put the innings on track. Juyal’s dismissal triggered a mini collapse as UP slipped from 75 for one to 124 for five in the second session.
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Garg looked set for a deserved half-century but was beaten by a ball from Basil Thampi that kept low. Sachin Baby then took a flying catch at short-leg off Jalaj to end Akshdeep Nath’s stay in the middle.
The 2024 IPL auction’s most expensive uncapped player Sameer Rizvi (26) entertained the crowd by clubbing two fours and two sixes but he fell trying to hit Shreyas Gopal as a mishit was comfortably taken by Sanju Samson in the deep.
Rinku and Jurel then got into their rescue act to thwart Kerala.
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