LUCKNOW, Oct. 16 -- Playing on home turf always allows a side to execute plans better against the visitors, but in the case of hosts and former champions Uttar Pradesh, the home ground advantage was lost due to 'bad selection' on Day One of their four-day season opener in Ranji Trophy against Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday. Delhi-boy Karan Sharma-led Uttar Pradesh chose to have more batters in the side rather than having spinners on the slow and sluggish turf of the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, and paid the price for this in their Elite Group A encounter as Andhra finished the day with 289/3 in 85.5 overs in the first innings. Barring an early wicket by leg spinner Vipraj Nigam and two wickets in the last over of the day by Aauib Khan, all other bowlers Shivam Mavi, Shivam Sharma and part timers Karan Sharma and Rinku Singh kept struggling throughout the day for wickets after Andhra chose to bat first after winning the toss. After an early struggle, Barabanki's Nigam brought the smiles on the faces of Uttar Pradesh fielders, forcing opener Abhishek Reddy to edge a regulation catch for keeper Aryan Juyal just before the lunch, as the batter tried to play a defensive shot after making 73-ball 36, which contained four hits to the fence. But thereafter, it was a long struggle for Uttar Pradesh as Team India-discard keeper-batter KS Bharat let everybody wait for his wicket with his display of patience with the willow on Pitch No 4. The 32-year-old Bharat, who has so far played for India in seven Tests, scored 142 in 244 balls with the help of 13 boundaries. This was Bharat's 11th first-class hundred in 107 encounters and his 194-run second wicket stand with SK Rasheed kept the host bowlers running for cover as Rasheed too scored an unbeaten 94, which came off 197 balls with the help of eight hits to the fence. However, UP's decision to take second new ball in the 86th over did the trick as Aaquib first took the wicket of Bharat, caught by Madhav Kaushik at second slip on the second ball of his 14th over, and then uprooted the off-stump of skipper Ricky Bhui on the fifth ball of the over after the batter completely missed the line. There was some bad news for Uttar Pradesh as one of their main batters, Abhishek Goswami, was injured while trying to catch a lofty hit from Bharat off Nigam at the boundary and was shouldered out of the field and didn't return to the remaining part of the game. Former champions Uttar Pradesh will be aiming for a winning start in their new season of their four-day Elite Group D encounter in Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy when they take on hosts Himachal Pradesh at Bilaspur from Thursday. The new season of Uttar Pradesh, who had their maiden trophy in 2014-15, will also be a testing time for newly appointed coach and former India cricketer Gyanendra Pandey and skipper Sameer Rizvi. Pandey's credentials as a successful coach of the Ranji Trophy team are unmatched, but Rizvi's poor show in the longer format of the game is a matter of concern. Rizvi's 491 runs in 10 matches in this season of the UPT20 League was the latest highlight of his career, but his 152 runs so far in the 14 innings of nine first-class matches at 11.69 keeps pushing him back. Uttar Pradesh have quality batters like Rituraj Sharma and Swastik Chikara, who have shown their class with runs both in white and red-ball cricket, but all eyes will be on keeper-batter Akshay Dubey, who was one of the biggest failures with willow in the two seasons of the UPT20 League and will be making his debut. Young left-arm pacer Naman Tewari, who did well in the last youth World Cup for India, will also be expected to shine....