Uttar Pradesh are all set for an outright victory after bundling out Hyderabad for a paltry 227 runs on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match in Lucknow on Thursday.
At stumps, the hosts were four without no loss, 30 runs short of victory.
Shivakant Shulkla (4 not out) and Jyoti Yadav (0) were at the crease when play was called off due to bad light.
Piyush Chawla, who claimed three wickets in first innings, put the hosts firmly in the driver's seat, taking 5 wickets for 37.
Faced with a deficit of 198 runs, Hyderabad, who had scored 142 in their first innings, again failed to put up a good batting performance after resuming at the overnight total of 59 for one.
A W Zaidi and Shalabh Srivastava took two wickets each for the hosts.
Scorecard
Hyderabad (1st innings): 142
Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): 340
Hyderabad (2nd innings):
D Manohar lbw Kumar 21
P Shashank Nag lbw Zaidi 23
Anirudh Singh c Ravikant Shukla b Srivastava 16
A Yadav c Srivastava b P Chawla 49
D Vinay Kumar lbw P Chawla 34
I Khaleel lbw b P Chawla 39
P Niranjan b Zaidi 0
Kaushik Reddy b P Chawla 5
N Singh b Srivastava 17
P Reddy c Ravikant Shukla b P Chawla 7
P Ojha not out 0.
Extras: (b 4, lb 8, nb 4) 16
Total: (all out, 77.4 overs, 316 mins) 227
Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-63, 3-82, 4-143, 5-164, 6-171, 7-178, 8-203, 9-218, 10-227.
Bowling: Zaidi 20-3-73-2 (1nb), Srivastava 19-5-53-2, Kumar 15-2-52-1 (3nb), Piyush Chawla 23.4-10-37-5.
Uttar Pradesh (2nd innings): (target: 30 runs)
S Shukla not out 4
J P Yadav not out 0
Extras: 0
Total: (no loss, 2 overs) 4
To bat: R Shamshad, G Pandey, M Kaif, P Chawla, R Shukla, A Khan, P Kumar, A Zaidi, S Srivastava.
Bowling: Singh 1-0-4-0, Reddy 1-1-0-0.
