LUCKNOW, Oct. 19 -- A white ball specialist batter Rinku Singh has always been in the news for his heroics. In the IPL, he stroked five sixes on consecutive deliveries to earn a big fame for himself as well as call up to the Team India for international duty, especially in T20 matches, and recently struck the match-winning boundary in the Asia Cup final against Pakistan at Dubai. After the Asia Cup, domestic cricket was the next destination for Rinku and here too he made headlines for him on Saturday, helping former champions Uttar Pradesh survive in an Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match against Andhra in Kanpur. Rinku, who guided hosts Uttar Pradesh start the domestic season with three points on the basis of the first innings lead while chasing Andhra's first innings total of 470, in the process went past former stalwarts Rahul Dravid, Saba Karim and current Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal in India's all-time highest first-class averages, with a minimum of 50 innings after his recent exploits in the opening round of the Ranji Trophy. Rinku scored an admirable unbeaten 165 in first-class cricket, weeks before touring Australia for a five-match T20I series. His knock also drew the attention of the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel that he can also bat well in the longer version of the game. With a batting masterclass, Rinku's first-class batting average has now soared from 54.68 to 57.39, the tenth highest all-time among Indian cricketers with a minimum of 50 innings. In fact, what Rinku did on Saturday was something amazing in the recent history of Uttar Pradesh cricket as he eclipsed Dravid and Jadeja. In the overall tally, Vijay Merchant, who notched over 13,000 runs at an average of 71.64, sits at the summit. And the statistics says that the legendary batter, followed by Shantanu Sugwekar and KC Ibrahim, are the only others in the list to average over 60. Rinku's innings was marked by grit and responsibility rather than flair. Facing over 260 deliveries, he weathered challenges from Andhra's bowlers, ensuring Uttar Pradesh remained in contention. This disciplined knock underlined his maturity and growth as a batter, particularly after his successful stints in the IPL and T20I cricket. Rinku's century brought him past the milestone of 3,400 runs in first-class cricket. He now has eight hundreds and 22 fifties in the format. Despite being primarily recognised for his T20 exploits, Rinku has proven his consistency across formats, also averaging close to 50 in List-A cricket. With overnight score reading 294/6, Uttar Pradesh needed 177 runs on the final day of the four-day encounter on Saturday at the batters friendly wicket of the Green Park Stadium. Both Rinku and all-rounder Vipraj Nigam took it as a challenge and kept the scoreboard ticking on at a perfect pace. Both Rinku and Vipraj stitched together 112 runs for the sixth wicket before Baranaki's Vipraj was castled by SK Rasheed after playing a patient knock of 42, which came off 119 balls with the help of three boundaries and two sixes. This, however, didn't make a difference to Rinku, who kept hitting the ball hard all-around the green lush ground. No 8 Shivam Sharma then gave him a staunch support, scoring 136-ball 38 with the help of five boundaries and the two took the score to 433/8 in 162 overs. Sharma was bowled by concussion replacement PVSN Raju. Uttar Pradesh still needed 38 runs and then it came the turn of another all-rounder Shivam Mavi, who smashed 30an unbeaten 30-ball 20 with the help of one six and a four to take the side home in 169 overs. For Andhra, pacer Prithvi Raj Yarra and Ricky Bhui took two wickets each, KV Sasikanth, Saurabh Kumar, P Raju and SK Rasheed shared four wickets between them. Now, Uttar Pradesh, who stand at the fourth position in the group with three points, will now take on Odisha in their next encounter also at the Green park stadium from October 25....