Mohammed Kaif struck a stroke-filled half century to help defending champions Uttar Pradesh scored 204 for four at stumps on the opening day of the Elite Group A Ranji trophy match against Tamil Nadu in Chennai on Tuesday.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 267 for eight, the home team swelled their score to 325 in 106.4 overs.
Uttar Pradesh began their reply on a bad note, losing opener R Srivastava (4) in the fifth over.
However, S S Shukla (32, 140 balls, 5x4) and Mohd Kaif (88, 161 balls, 12x4, 2x6) steadied the innings with a 127-run stand for the second wicket in 44.1 overs.

After the exit of Kaif and Shukla in quick succession, Suresh Raina compounded the woes of the Tamil Nadu bowlers with a 38 run stand for the fourth wicket with Piyush Chawla [Images] (15, 33 balls 2x4) before the latter fell towards the fag end of the day.

Scoreboard:

Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
S Anirudha c Shukla b RP Singh 4
M Vijay c Rohit b S Srivastava 7
R.Prasanna lbw b Praveen Kumar 134
S Badrinath b RP Singh 22
S Sharath lbw b Praveen Kumar 25
R Satish c Suresh Raina b Praveen Kumar 32
R Naresh b Ali Murtaza 7
YO Mahesh lbw b RP Singh   26
Varun Kumar c Amir Khan b RP Singh  2
R Aswin not out 42
R Jesuraj lbw b Praveen Kumar 0
Extras (b-5, lb-4, nb-14, w-1) 24
Total (all out in 106.4 overs) 325

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-16, 3-49, 4-87, 5-140, 6-167 7-257, 8-264, 9-325.

Bowling: RP Singh 26-2-91-4, S Srivastava 23-5-72-1, Praveen Kumar 23.4-4-58-4, Rohit Prakash 3-1-10-0, Piyush Chawla 11-5-31-0, Ali Murtaza 17-2-44-1, Suresh Raina 2-0-5-0, Mohammad Kaif 1-0-5-0.

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): 
R P Srivastava c Varun Kumar b Mahesh 4
S S Shukla lbw b Naresh 32
M Kaif lbw b Naresh 88
S K Raina batting 33
Piyush Chawla c Sathish b Ashwin 15
A Murtaza batting 4.
Extras: (LB-3, W-6, NB-19) 28
Total (for four wkts in 71 overs) 204
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-133, 3-153, 4-191.

Bowling: V Yo Mahesh 16-5-47-1, R Jesuraj 13-6-32-0, R Naresh 14-3-40-2, R Sathish 2-0-9-0, R Ashwin 21-5-61-1, S Badrinath 5-1-12-0.