A fine century by Tanmay Srivastav guided Uttar Pradesh to a challenging 292 for seven wickets in the first innings on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy final against Delhi here on Wednesday.

At stumps, Ravikant Shukla was batting on 80 and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar on eight after Delhi elected to bowl on the Wankhede track, which had a tinge of grass. Bowlers toiled all through the day. Medium pacers Pradeep Sangwan and Sumit Narwal picked up three wickets each.

Uttar Pradesh lost opener Rohit Srivastav for six, leg-before to Narwal. Then Sangwan removed Suresh Raina (16), also lbw, and the 2005-06 champions were struggling at 60 for two.

Captain Mohammed Kaif's edgy innings (16) came to an end as he slashed leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda's first delivery to slip, leaving his team at 99 for three.

Tanmay, in the company of Shukla steadied the innings, the duo adding 101 runs for the fourth wicket to take Uttar Pradesh past the 200-run-mark before he fell, edging to third slip Shikhar Dhawan off Sangwan. His 174-ball knock included 13 fours.

The Delhi bowlers could have shown better discipline and rued the reprieve they gave Shukla when he was on 13. Nanda had placed a fielder at deep midwicket and lured Shukla to play the slog sweep, but Narwal muffed the catch.

Delhi bowlers struck back towards the end of the day with seamers picking up four quick wickets and giving their batsmen hope of an early start on the second day.