The Punjab fielders were keen to seek the comfort of the dressing room. And the Karnataka batsmen would not have minded that either. Drooping shoulders and lethargic movements added to the farcical proceedings as bad light restricted play on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal here on Tuesday.
It was a day that saw Karnataka, resuming at 351 for five, add 96 runs in 36.1 overs, with three stoppages leaving Punjab frustrated.
Karnataka was sitting pretty on 447 for five at stumps; Punjab made 270 in its first innings.
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Amit Verma, 65 overnight, went on to complete his eighth First Class century in his first match this season.
“Karun (Nair) has been helping me a lot, and since he was already settled when I walked in, I spoke to him in between overs and we discussed how to go about things,” Verma said.
The batsmen found the interruptions trying too. Karun said: “Yes, it did break our concentration, but then the situation was such that it was a bit easier — having taken the first innings lead, there wasn’t much pressure on us.”
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On umpire Subrat Das not ruling him out leg-before to Gurkeerat Singh when he was on 6, Verma said: “I felt that there were two sounds. I felt I had nicked the ball. I don’t know what you people saw on the television. I didn’t think about it much, and carried on batting.”
Meanwhile, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh were given life membership of the Punjab Cricket Association Club House by PCA secretary M. P. Pandove, who also presented opener Jiwanjot Singh with the Board’s trophy for being the highest run-getter in domestic cricket last season.
The scores:
Punjab — 1st innings: 270.
Karnataka — 1st innings: Robin Uthappa lbw b Harbhajan 47, K.L. Rahul c Khera b Gony 4, Mayank Agarwal c Khera b Jaskaran 0, Manish Pandey c Khera b Sandeep 65, Karun Nair (batting) 151, C.M. Gautam c Jiwanjot b Harbhajan 48, Amit Verma (batting) 114, Extras (lb-7, nb-9, w-2) 18; Total (for five wickets in 146.1 overs) 447.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-23, 3-94, 4-158, 5-241.
Punjab bowling: Sandeep Sharma 23-5-58-1, Manpreet Gony 31-4-103-1, Jaskaran Singh 25-5-89-1, Harbhajan Singh 33-3-98-2, Yuvraj Singh 4-0-14-0, Taruwar Kohli 12.1-1-42-0, Gurkeerat Singh 18-3-36-0.