Ranji Trophy 2015-16: Punjab ‘call the shots’ at Dindigul

Ranji Trophy 2015-16: Punjab ‘call the shots’ at Dindigul: NPR College Ground, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, is the venue in which the final round league game in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2015-16 is underway.

Harbhajan Singh, leading the Punjab team won the toss and opted to bat. His boys could put up a reasonably good score of 206 runs in the first innings in a 57-over duel between the bat and the ball. Team India discards, Yuvraj Singh, came good with 63-ball 49 runs with the help of 4 fours and 2 sixes.

Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner, DT Chandrasekhar, picked up 3 wickets in his spell of 13 overs giving away 43 runs. The other left-arm spinner, Rahil Shah and the right-arm offie, Malolan Rangarajan, took 2 wickets each.

Commencing their response, Tamil Nadu batsmen could score only in single digit, except for Jagadeesan Kousik who scored 30 runs off 36 deliveries with 3 fours. A score line of 8, 1, 3, 7, 1, 2, 0, 30, 6, 7 0, 4 does not speak much about the batting potential of the team that boasts of batsmen line Baba Aparajith, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik in their line-up, all of whom have tons of runs to their credit. TN ended their first innings with only 68 runs on the board in 23.4 overs, their second lowest total in the history of Ranji Trophy.

The left-arm spinner, 26-year old, Rajwinder Singh Golu, came up with his first-class career’s second ‘5-wicket haul’ by scalping 6 wickets, giving away only 29 runs in his spell of 11.4 overs, while Harbhajan Singh returned with the figure of 10-0-30-3.

Taking a lead of 138 runs, Punjab ended day 1 with 36/1 after 10 overs in their second innings. They now have an overall lead of 174 runs with 9 wickets and 9 sessions of play left in the match, at the time of filing this report. A result seems to be a possibility.

In the aftermath of a Ranji game between Bengal and Odisha ending in just two days time, when, as many as 40 wickets fell, and also the Nagpur pitch where the third Test between India and South Africa was played, being rated ‘poor’ by ICC, doubts were cast on the Dindigul pitch also.

However, the Tamil Nadu coach, 49-year old, Mullassery Sanjay, said that his team batted very poorly. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, he said, “Basically we played too many shots too early thinking that the wicket is going to do [something].”

“There is turn and bounce, it is a spinner-friendly wicket, but they have got 200 [206], so it’s not like it’s a bad wicket. I think it’s more in the mind than in the wicket”.

“The odd ball kept low, but it was prepared to be a turning track just like India are preparing wickets for home games. We had to because we need to have to six points.”

The Punjab-Tamil Nadu match was in the news for another freak incident. Australian Umpire, John Ward, who was doing duty in the middle, was injured when he was struck on the head by a shot played by Punjab’s Barinder Sran, in the 48th over of Punjab’s innings, facing a delivery from DT Chandrasekhar. The Umpire fell on the ground and was moved to a private hospital.

Contrary to the reports that Umpire Ward became unconscious after he fell, speaking to ESPNCricinfo, the Dindigul District Cricket Association Secretary, M Venkatraman said, “He wasn’t unconscious. After he got hit he fell to the ground, but he stood up and walked up to the ambulance by himself.”

“He is completely normal. He has a tiny bulge behind the right ear which was identified in the scan. The medical observation, as per BCCI norms, has to be done in a big hospital, so we have shifted him to Apollo Hospitals in Madurai”.

“There also we took scans. He is completely alright. Normally, in the event of a head injury, a patient is advised to be under observation for a day or two. He has been advised rest for a minimum of one day.”

Meanwhile, Ward is likely to be replaced by Mohammad Rafik, who is a member of the Ranji Trophy Umpires Panel, for the remainder of the match.