Railways took firm control of its Group A Ranji Trophy clash against Punjab scoring 180 for two in its second essay for a comfortable 296-run lead at stumps.
Earlier Uday Kaul’s dismissal triggered the collapse of the Punjab innings on day three at the Air Force Sports Complex here. Punjab folded up for 215 to concede a 116-run lead.
With Shivakant Shukla settled on 83 and chasing his second century of the game and Mahesh Rawat unbeaten on 34, Railways looks set to walk away with three points from the match though coach J.P. Yadav is eyeing all six with a target of 350-360 runs in the fourth innings.
“Both these batsmen are crucial. Coming back after two years and getting two hundreds in the opening match will be a big morale-booster for Shiva. And Mahesh is one of our strongest players. It was a serious hit he took on the collar bone on day one but came back brilliantly. We rely a lot on him,” said Yadav.
Earlier Manjeet Chaudhary, who moved from Rajasthan, was the wrecker-in-chief with four wickets, three on Saturday morning. The pair of Gurkeerat Mann and Kaul was crucial for Punjab to put up a strong challenge but Chaudhary had other ideas.
His first ball of the day was the first one faced by Gurkeerat and the latter flicked it to Yadav at gully. Kaul managed to add two to his overnight score before perishing to a rising delivery from Chaudhary that came into the body.
The left-hander tried to pull himself away, got an edge to the ball and saw it settling into the waiting hands of Ashish Yadav at leg slip, a position that saw a fielder only on that one occasion.
Vinay Chaudhary’s leg stump crashed soon after as Punjab fell to 176 for seven with only the bowlers left and the team was all out 35 minutes before lunch.
“It is too early to say whether our purpose in drafting Manjeet in has been served but it is on the right track. He has done what he was expected to do and I am satisfied with his performance so far,” added Yadav.
The scores: Railways — 1st innings: 331.
Punjab — 1st innings: Manan Vohra c Rawat b Bansal 5, Jiwanjot Singh c Rawat b Anureet 9, Uday Kaul c Yadav b Manjeet 61, Mandeep Singh b Bansal 3, Yuvraj Singh c Ghosh b Manjeet 9, Gurkeerat Mann c Yadav b Manjeet 66, Gitansh Khera lbw b Karn Sharma 18, Vinay Choudhary b Manjeet 4, Manpreet Grewal b Anureet 3, Sandeep Sharma c Ghosh b Karn 20, Siddharth Kaul not out 12; Extras (lb-2, nb-2, w-1): 4; Total (in 80.1 overs): 215.
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-15, 3-20, 4-44, 5-154, 6-163, 7-176, 8-179, 9-194.
Railways bowling: Anureet Singh 22-6-55-2, Ashish Yadav 12-2-24-0, Deepak Bansal 12-3-31-2, Akshat Pandey 4-3-3-0, Manjeet Choudhary 15-2-56-4, Shivakant Shukla 2-0-8-0, Karn Sharma 13.1-2-36-2.
Railways — 2nd innings: Sourabh Wakaskar retired hurt 56, Shivakant Shukla (batting) 83, Akshat Pandey run out Khera 0, Arindam Ghosh c Mann b Vinay 0, Mahesh Rawat (batting) 34; Extras (b-4, nb-3): 7; Total (for two wickets in 67 overs): 180.
Fall of wickets: 1-111, 2-111.
Punjab bowling: Sandeep Sharma 12-2-27-0, Manpreet Grewal 8-0-18-0, Gurkeerat Mann 20-2-40-0, Vinay Choudhary 14-3-54-1, Siddharth Kaul 9-1-24-0, Yuvraj Singh 3-0-13-0, Jiwanjot Singh 1-1-0-0.
