Tamil Nadu’s bowlers ran into Shubman Gill, a 19-year-old batting powerhouse. Rated a tremendous potential by Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, the right-hander produced an impeccable unbeaten 199, as Punjab posted an imposing 308 for two in reply to the visitors’ first innings score of 215 at the end of the second day’s play in their Ranji Trophy match at the PCA Stadium here on Saturday.
Resuming at 213 for nine, TN’s innings folded up in 10 balls. Thereafter, it was all a Gill show that only reinforced the high praise that he has earned in the last two seasons. Opting out of a farming tradition, Gill pursued his love for cricket by moving to Chandigarh and making waves with his awesome talent.
“It was not an easy pitch,” said Gill, but he hardly produced a wrong shot, seldom appeared hustled into playing the ball, and went about his job by scoring at will. Showing no signs of fatigue after facing 234 balls, and hitting 21 fours and four sixes, Gill revealed his strategy of playing the ball on “merit.”
Suffering bowlers
TN’s bowlers suffered even when they bowled well because the lanky strokeplayer had all the time to play his shots. Such was his timing that he chose to forget, just for the day, Dravid’s advice to him of keeping the ball on the ground.
Growing up close to the PCA Stadium, Gill would often be summoned to bat against fast bowlers at various camps held here. “Yes, it helped me a lot,” said Gill. No wonder, at a camp in the National Cricket Academy three years ago, he was marked as a batsman to watch out for by Dravid and Amol Muzumdar.
The youngster spoke of striking a balance between his natural game and demands of the pitch. “I am used to adapting quickly but I believe in capitalising on the bad balls at any given stage. I was prepared to tackle the good ball too. I was mentally geared up,” said Gill.
Gill’s performance — his 50 came off 52 balls, 100 off 106, 150 off 171 and the last 49 off 63 — which got him his second century in his fourth First Class match, put in shade the disciplined half century by skipper Mandeep Singh. The two have thus far added 180 for the third wicket.
The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: N. Jagadeesan lbw b Baltej 19, Abhinav Mukund c Gupta b Gony 5, B. Aparajith b Gony 40, B. Indrajith b Gony 0, Dinesh Karthik b Baltej 26, Vijay Shankar c sub b Gony 71, Shahrukh Khan c Gupta b Sandeep 19, M. Mohammed c Gupta b Gony 27, R. Sai Kishore run out 1, K. Vignesh b Gony 0, T. Natarajan (not out) 1; Extras (lb-4, nb-1, w-1): 6, Total (in 85.4 overs): 215.
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-31, 3-31, 4-73, 5-111, 6-155, 7-213, 8-213, 9-213.
Punjab bowling: Sandeep 20-3-51-1, Gony 18-5-55-5, Baltej 21-9-45-3, Abhishek 15-6-32-0, Mandeep 7-4-9-0, Gurkeerat 3-0-11-0, Anmolpreet 1-0-8-0.
Punjab — 1st innings: Jiwanjyot Singh c Shahrukh b Kishore 33, Shubman Gill (batting) 199, Anmolpreet Singh b Natarajan 7, Mandeep Singh (batting) 50; Extras (b-4, lb-6, w-8, nb-1): 19; Total (for two wkts in 79 overs): 308,
Fall of wickets: 1-107, 2-128.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Natarajan 19-3-58-1, Mohammed 11-0-40-0, Vignesh 12-0-49-0, Kishore 22-1-77-1, Shankar 6-0-30-0, Aparajith 9-1-44-0.
