14 January,2009 08:27 AM IST | | Amol Karhadkar
Shivakant Shukla and Parvinder Singh, Uttar Pradesh's not out batsmen, face a huge responsibility of pulling their team out of trouble against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy final PICS/SURESH KK
UP's hopes against Mumbai rest on Shukla and Parvinder performing another miracle like they did in the semis vs Tamil Nadu
Once you are lucky, twice you are good.
Uttar Pradesh youngsters Shivakant Shukla and Parvinder Singh may not have even heard of Business reporter Sarah Lacy's readable book. But if they can dig Uttar Pradesh out of the hole today, the third day of their Ranji Trophy final against favourites Mumbai, the duo would emerge as better heroes than the entrepreneurs who never gave up on the internet dream and were profiled in the book.
Shiva, as the opening batsman is known among his teammates, and Parvinder struggling to find their feet on the domestic circuit pulled out a surprise by stitching together a gallant 272-run partnership for the fourth wicket against Tamil Nadu inu00a0 last week's semi-final in Nagpur, which helped UP overhaul TN's first innings' score of 445.
Same script
And yesterday when the second day's play was called off, the batsmen at the crease were again Shukla and Parvinder, with UP at a precarious 91 for three, chasing Mumbai's 402. While Shuklau00a0 garnered 33 runs in 201 minutes, Parvinder was yet to open his account off the 10 balls he faced.
Shukla's unbeaten 178 and Parvinder's 138 against TN was far from being spotless with Shukla getting one life while the latter benefiting from two dropped catches. But what mattered was that they took full advantage of the missed chances.
And the Mumbai camp, especially Ajinkya Rahane, were hoping that the dropped opportunity will not cost them much. Rahane, standing at gully, failed to latch on to a sharp chance offered by Shukla off Ajit Agarkar when he was on 18. "We would have loved to finish the day by taking four wickets," Mumbai coach Praveen Amre said. "We had our chance but couldn't convert it."
Dangermen
The former India batsman realised the potential danger the overnight unbeaten duo could offer to his team.
"They have done it once recently, but we hope to get them out early in the morning."
The task for Shukla and Parvinder, will not be so easy this time around, though. While the Nagpur track had nothing in it for the bowlers, this wicket is offering a lot of help to the fast bowler and is likely to start turning as the match progresses.
And with Zaheer Khan, who joined the 500 first-class wicket-takers' club with the wicket of Mohammad Kaif (33), Ajit Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni bowling at full steam; and offie Ramesh Powar alongwith leggie Sairaj Bahutule using all their experience, the two UP southpaws will have to really work hard if they are to get anywhere near Mumbai's daunting total.
Even UP skipper Kaif realised this. "It's not going to be as if we just have to see off the first session. We will really have to bat well throughout the day tomorrow and try and get as close to Mumbai's target."
