Helped by the maiden century by young Ravikant Shukla and his 172 run fifth wicket partnership with skipper Jyoti Yadav (88), Uttar Pradesh were in a formidable position with a vital first innings lead of 108 against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy league match, being played at OEF grounds in Kanpur on Saturday.

UP were all out for 450 in their first innings after resuming from their overnight score of 259 for four.

Saurashtra, who had scored 342 runs in their first innings, were 77 for two in their second innings, when stumps were drawn on the third day of the match.

Ravikant, 19-year old left-handed batsman, who was captain of the India Under-19 team for World Cup in Sri Lanka earlier this year, was at his fluent best in scoring 135 runs, inclusive of 18 hits to the fence and three over it. His wristy shots coupled with some fine front foot drives were a treat to watch for a the small crowd that had gathered to warch the match.

Captain Jyoti, who was 61 overnight, added 27 runs before getting out.

A fine rearguard action by another young prodigy Piyush Chawla, who scored a strokeful 75, helped his side gain an upper hand.

Team India pacer R P Singh got important breakthroughs for the hosts in the second innings claiming both the Saurashtra openers, before Sitanshu Kotak (33) and Cheteshwar Pujara (24) took their team till stumps.

Scorecard

Saurashtra (1st innings): 342
Uttar Pradesh (1st innings):
P Kumar c Jogiyani b Maniar 17
S Shukla lbw b Jobanputra 43
Tahir Abbas b Maniar 29
R Shukla st Jogiyani b Makvana 135
R Shamshad c & b Dhurv 16
J P Yadav c Jogiyani b Jobanputra 88
G Pandey lbw b Maniar 0
Piyush Chawla c Jobanputra b Pujara 75
Amir Khan not out 28
R P Singh lbw b Jobanputra 13
S Srivastava lbw b Jobanputra 0
Extras: (b 1, w 1, nb 4) 6
Total: (all out; 130.3 overs; 541 mins) 450     

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-82, 3-91, 4-143, 5-315, 6-316, 7-351, 8-425, 9-450, 10-450.

Bowling: S Jobanputra 22.3-5-85-4,S Maniar 22-5-93-3, K Makvana 32-6-91-1, RV Dhurv 18-1-68-1,  N Doshi 18-3-68-0, S Kotak 8-1-24-0, J Shah 3-1-7-0, K Vaghela 4-1-6-0, C Pujara 3-1-7-1.

Saurashtra 2nd innings:
K Vaghela lbw b Singh 1
S Jogiyani c Shamshad b Singh 11
S Kotak not out 33
C Pujara not out 24.
Extras: (b 1, w 5, nb 2) 8
Total: ( for 2 wickets; 23 overs) 77     

To bat: J Shah, P Mehta, R Dhurv, K Makvana, S Jobanputra, N Doshi, S Maniar 

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-33

Bowling: S Srivastava 7-2-15-0, R P Singh 5-1-20-2, P Kumar 5-1-14-0, Piyush Chawla 5-0-27-0,S Shukla 1-1-0-0.