Connor Williams (122) and Jacob Martin (111) slammed unbeaten centuries as Baroda raced to 268 for 2 in reply to Uttar Pradesh's first innings total of 346 in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' in Ghaziabad on Friday.

At the end of day 2, Baroda trail by 78 runs, with eight wickets remaining in hand.

Resuming 303 for 6, Uttar Pradesh lost their last three wickets for the addition of another 43 runs and seemed right on top after claiming two early wickets before the Baroda score reached 40.

However, Williams (122 not out, off 198 balls, 12x4 1x6) and Martin (111 not out, off 200 balls, 19x4) not only arrested the slide but also turned the tide.

Williams was more aggressive of the duo even though Martin was also impressive.

Uttar Pradesh captain Jyoti Yadav employed seven bowlers, including himself, but could not make any impact as both Williams and Martin were rock solid in defence and did not waste any scoring opportunity.

Scorecard

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): (Overnight 303 for 6)
Rohit Prakash lbw b Patel 71
Jyoti P Yadav c Shah b Sumit Singh 4
Suresh Raina c Williams b Pathan 75
Rizwan Shamshad c Williams b Pathan 0
Gyanendra Pandey c Williams b Pathan 48
Ravikant Shukla c Powar b Pawar 45
Amir Khan c Williams b Patel 43
Piyush Chawla lbw b Patel 16
P Kumar c Martin b Pawar 22
Praveen Gupta not out 8
AW Zaidi c Williams b Pawar 0.
Extras: (B-4, LB-8, W-1, NB-1) 14.
Total: (all out in 107.3 overs) 346.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-141, 3-152, 4-159, 5-235, 6-271, 7-309, 8-336, 9-340.

Bowling: Rakesh Patel 34-11-91-3, Sumit Singh 17-5-57-1, Irfan Pathan Sr 34-2-104-3, Kiran Pawar 17.3-3-58-1, Ajit Bhoite 5-0-24-0.

Baroda (1st innings):
Irshad Sindhi lbw b Zaidi 9
Connor Williams not out 122
Rakesh Solanki c Amir Khan b P Kumar 16
Jacbo Martin not out 111.
Extras: (B-4, LB-2, NB-4) 10.
Total: (For two wickets in 73 overs) 268.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-40.

Bowling: AW Zaidi 17-2-57-1, P Kumar 18-2-61-1, Suresh Raina 1-0-9-0, Piyush Chawla 19-2-77-0, Praveen Gupta 13-3-38-0, Jyoti Yadav 4-0-11-0, Gyanendra Pandey 1-0-9-0.

UNI