At the age of 17, Bhuvneshwar made a memorable first-class debut with 3-25 against Bengal. The following season, he began the Ranji Trophy with a 5-58 performance against Andhra and ended the season with 31 wickets at an average of 24.12.
Uttar Pradesh experienced their most successful period in the Ranji Trophy, reaching the final three times in four years, capturing the title in 2005/06 and being runners-up in 2007/08 and 2008/09. Nevertheless, they faced Mumbai, who was not only the strongest team in the Ranji Trophy but also a side that had won nearly as many titles as all the other teams combined.
The Mumbai team consisted of a host of international cricketers including Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer, Ajit Agarkar, Sairaj Bahutule, Rohit Sharma, and Ramesh Powar. In time, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, and Dhawal Kulkarni would also become part of their talented roster.
It’s worth mentioning that Uttar Pradesh also had six international cricketers, both current and former: Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, and Bhuvneshwar.
Bhuvneshwar, who opened the bowling alongside his idol and fellow Meerut seamer Praveen, dismissed Mumbai’s captain Jaffer and wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant with leg-before wickets. When Tendulkar stepped up to the plate, he lost Rahane on 55, who was also leg-before to RP.
On the second delivery of Bhuvneshwar’s following over, the ball swung sharply in and hit Tendulkar’s inside edge, striking his pad and soaring into the air. Shivakant Shukla, stationed at short mid-wicket, made a diving catch to his left to complete the dismissal. Tendulkar’s brief 15-ball stay at the crease resulted in a duck.
Rohit (141) and Nayar (99) joined forces for a 207-run fifth-wicket partnership to propel Mumbai to a score of 402, with Bhuvneshwar taking 5-78. Despite Shukla’s 99, Uttar Pradesh was unable to resist Zaheer’s 7-54 and was dismissed for 245.
Rohit inflicted further pain on Uttar Pradesh with a second hundred (108) after Samant (113) and Jaffer (85) contributed 146 runs. Chawla took 4-94 and Parvinder Singh 3-46. In pursuit of 525, Uttar Pradesh fell to 281 against Kulkarni’s 5-76. Despite this, Bhuvneshwar top-scored with 80.
