LUCKNOW, Oct. 18 -- For the third consecutive day, hosts and former champions Uttar Pradesh continued to struggle in their season opener Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match against Andhra as they were struggling at 294/6 in their first innings against visitors' total of 470 in Kanpur on Friday. Uttar Pradesh still need 177 runs to take first innings lead with four wickets in hand and much would depend on Team India's T20 specialist Rinku Singh and all-rounder Vipraj Nigam when the final day game begins on Saturday. The two added unbeaten 74 runs for the seventh wicket with Singh batting at 82 and Nigam at 28. Resuming at 73/1, overnight batters Madhav Kaushik and Aryan Juyal began cautiously and took the score to 144 when Kaushik was bowled by Ricky Bhui after missing the line of a slow delivery. His 189-ball 54 was studded with seven hits to the fence. With a long tail of batters in the side, the side weren't expecting to show poorly on the black soil turf of the Green Park Stadium, but Kaushik's departure led to a mini collapse as Delhi-man Karan Sharma (2) was bowled by Bhui just before lunch. In fact, skipper Sharma was a bit unlucky as Bhui's delivery rolled into the stumps after hitting his pads. With the scoreboard at lunch reading 146/3 in 62 overs, Uttar Pradesh batters were expected to play with patience but the side kept losing wickets on regular intervals. In form Aryan Juyal was the next man to go as he edged a regulation catch to keeper KS Bharat off left-arm pacer Prithvi Raj Varra after scoring 66 in 162 balls with the help of seven boundaries and a six. Uttar Pradesh then lost their former captain Priyam Garg, who was caught by a diving KV Sasikanth off Saurabh Kumar after making run-a-ball 18, which was studded with three boundaries. Garg's departure also saw a concussion replacement in the form of PVSN Raju as while taking the catch Sasikanth sustained head injury. Keeper-batter Aaradhya Yadav too failed to impress as he departed soon only after making 54-ball 17, which contained two hits to the fence after being caught by Abhishek Reddy off Yarra. In fact, hosts at this stage of the match looked almost certain for a collapse on Friday itself, but Singh along with Nigam denied any further dent to the side. The two showed how patiently one can bat on this surface and score runs as they played their shots on merit and didn't allow Andhra bowlers to dictate terms to them. Left-hander Singh scored an unbeaten 82, which came off 129 balls with the help of six boundaries and two sixes, whereas Nigam took 80 balls to score 28 with the help of two fours and two sixes. Yarra and Bhui shared four wickets between them, whereas Sasikanth and Saurabh Kumar took a wicket each....