Praveen Kumar took 8/68 in Delhi’s first innings

Mumbai: Medium pacer Praveen Kumar claimed eight wickets to help Uttar Pradesh take a 52-run lead before Delhi fought back after Day III’s play of the Ranji Trophy final on Friday.

Praveen utilised the second new ball to telling effect to send Delhi crashing from 232 for four to 290 all out, with overall figures of eight for 68, before UP plunged to 154 for six in the second innings.

Praveen’s heroics came after overnight Delhi batsmen Aakash Chopra (102) and Rajat Bhatia (139 ..) added 36 runs to their overnight 196 for four.

But Delhi bounced back superbly despite an attacking knock of 85 by Suresh Raina in 94 balls to leave the tie on a knife-edge at stumps.

Earlier, in the morning Delhi smoothly moved to 232 without losing any wicket. The scenario changed when UP summoned the second new ball. Chopra was trapped lbw to start the procession after adding 196 runs with Bhatia for the fifth wicket.

Sudip Tyagi dismissed Nanda to leave Delhi at 247 for eight, 95 runs adrift of UP’s first innings tally of 342.

But UP started poorly when Tanmay Srivastava was run out. Raina, dropped on 20 put on 62 for the second wicket with opener Rohit Srivastava (18) before UP adjourned for tea at 123 for two.

After tea, UP lost Raina and Kaif to be reeling at 130 for six before Bhuvanesh Kumar (19) and Amir Khan (4) stemmed the rot with an unbroken stand of 24.