MUMBAI VS UP - Kuldeep leaves Mumbai in a spin

MYSURU: The Uttar Pradesh camp was a cheerful one at the end of Day One of their Ranji Trophy encounter against Mumbai on Sunday.
They enjoyed a game of football and looked very content. There was a lot of banter going on as well. After all, UP's bowlers, spearheaded by skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar, had bundled out the defending champions for a paltry 233 in 75.2 overs. At close of play, UP had wiped 22 runs but had also lost opener Tanmay Srivastava for 3.
Speedster Tushar Deshpande castled him with a beauty. Mumbai had called cor rectly in the morning and opted to bat. But on a slow wicket, the UP seamers did a fantastic job of stifling the Mumbai batsmen. The accuracy in line and length ensured frequent rewards.Mumbai opener Kaustubh Pawar, struggling with form, was the first Mumbai batsman to depart.
He edged an away going delivery by Ankit Rajput to wicketkeeper Eklavya Dwivedi when he was on four. Mumbai were 12-1by the time the sixth over had ended. Left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar was the next man out. He too edged one to Dwivedi off Imtiaz Ahmed. Bhuvneshwar, who finished his first spell without conceding a single run, eventually didn't have anything to show in the wickets column. He had figures of 136-27-0. The India speedster, who returned back to the game after a six-week injury lay-off, was the pick among bowlers though. He troubled the Mumbai batsmen with accuracy and dried up the runs.
Mumbai's Shreyas Iyer did manage to score a few quick runs, but once he was back in the pavilion for a 39ball 35, runs dried up again.Suryakumar Yadav, who scored 99, tried to keep the scoreboard ticking, but was running out of partners at the other end. Skipper Aditya Tare and Yadav did share an important partnership of 59 (the highest of the innings), but Tare, who was looking poised to score big, got a peach off a delivery from chinaman Kuldeep Yadav. Yadav induced an edge off Tare and Dwivedi did well behind stumps to pouch the snick. Tare was Yadav's first of his four victims.
Yadav, who was introduced as late as the 30th over, later accounted for Tare's deputy, Abhishek Nayar (0), Aditya Dhumal (30) and Shardul Thakur (0). In between the dismissals of Tare and Thakur, Siddhesh Lad was brilliantly caught at covers by Ahmed. He timed his full-stretched dive to per fection to get rid of Lad when he was on 13. Yadav hung on but a moment of brashness perhaps forced him to play a sweep shot.
He played across the line to part-time spinner Shivam Chaudhary and paid the price. Once he was done, Mumbai folded almost immediately.
Talking about his performance on the day, Yadav said: “The seamers made our job easy. They had picked up early wickets and put the Mumbai batsmen under pressure. All I had to do was keep bowling consistently and in the right areas.“