LUCKNOW, Jan. 24 -- By the end of the third over in their first innings, hosts and former champions Uttar Pradesh were virtually out of contention for an outright win over a spirited Jharkhand on Day Two of their four-day Elite Group A Ranji Trophy encounter here on Friday as their two top performers of the season were back in the pavilion. UP's highest run getter this session and opener Madhav Kaushik (2) was castled by Jatin Pandey with a beautiful inswinger on the very last ball of the second over, and thereafter skipper Aryan Juyal (4) edged a regulation catch to keeper Kumar Kushagra on the penultimate ball of the next over while trying for an over exciting front on push to a rising delivery. This wasn't all as keeper-batter Abhishek Sharma (2) too offered a straight catch to Shikhar Mohan at the second slip off Anukul Roy in the eight over to leave Uttar Pradesh tottering at 3/24 in reply to Jharkhand's mammoth first innings total of 561. However, fellow opener Abhishek Goswami (14) and night-watchman Shivam Sharma (8) somehow managed to survive further before the two umpires called for an early end of the day's play due to the bad might with UP's score reading 32/3 in 11 overs. UP could have been in more trouble as Goswami's first ball chip fell just short to the mid-on fielder, whereas Sharma was adjudged not out on a LBW appeal even though the ball hit the pad first before hitting the bat. Overall, it was yet another poor show by both bowlers and batters of Uttar Pradesh in the match, which they needed to win at all cost to keep their hopes alive for a knockout berth. On the contrary, Jharkhand men enjoyed the day both with willow and ball. Even though Uttar Pradesh's pacers showed some good sign of recovery early in the day on Friday on a slow surface of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium with two quick wickets, Jharkhand batters continued to defy them with right techniques and a selective approach only to hit the odd balls with power after resuming at the overnight score of 279/1. Day One centurion Sharandeep Singh (139, 286b, 16x4) could add just 11 runs to his overnight score of 128 before being caught by keeper Aaditya Sharma of Shivam Mavi after adding 149 runs for the second wicket. Other overnight batter Aryaman Sen too missed the line to be adjudged leg before wicket off pacer Kunal Tyagi after making 75 (179b, 6x4) soon then. Two quick wickets as early in the game was enough for Uttar Pradesh bowlers to smile, but it was short lived as Kumar Kushagra alongwith skipper Virat Singh added 111 runs for the fourth wicket to strengthen team's total further. The two batters kept UP bowlers on their toes with powerful hits all-around the boundary. Whereas Kushagra struck his fifth first-class century in as many as 31st match while scoring 143-ball 102 laced with 13 hits to the fence, Singh struck 50 in 81 balls with the help of six boundaries. It was his 11th half-century in 65 first-class matches. There was no respite for Uttar Pradesh bowlers even after the departures of these two as left-hander Robin Minz's 66-ball 62, studded with two boundaries and four sixes, kept them looking for covers as the batter along with Anukul Roy added 77 runs in 64 deliveries for the sixth wicket before Jharkhand skipper declared the innings after 151.5 overs as soon as Roy was caught by Siddarth Yadav off left-arm spinner Shivam Sharma, a replacement for injured Prashant Veer. For Uttar Pradesh, Shivam Sharma (2/81) and Kunal Tyagi (2/110) shared four wickets between them, whereas Vipraj Nigam and Shivam Mavi took a wicket each....