Tags:
Journalism of Courage
JUST before tea,Harbhajan Singh found himself in a bizarre comedy of errors. He had just stolen a single off Dhiraj Singh and as he lifted his bat,pointing towards the Punjab dressing room to celebrate his half-century,when he was told it was a scoreboard error. However,by the time he realised his mistake,the Punjab skipper had already declared the innings,leaving him one run short.
Harbhajan,however,wont be ruing his decision on reading the Odisha scoreboard at the close of the play. At 110 for 2 and still trailing by 245 runs,the day had progressed as Punjab wanted.
His decision-making was spot on. Even though the Mohali pitch was not its normal self,Harbhajan tossed the ball to Sandeep Sharma and added a fielder to the slip cordon. The third ball of Sandeeps first over swung prodigiously and Ravi Inder Singh,fielding in the slips,jumped to his left to get rid of Natraj Behera. In his second over,Sandeep bowled a fuller delivery that caught opener Girija Rout plumb in front of the wicket.
Two wickets down with 13 runs on the board and the Punjab pacers in ominous form,the Odisha pair of Niranjan Behera and Gobind Poddar did what they needed to do preserve their wicket. They defied the Punjab bowling attack and stitched a 97-run partnership for the third wicket – Odishas best of the match. Of the two,Poddar,Odishas most impressive batsman once again,scored an an unbeaten 52,the teams highest score.
Odisha finished the day on 110 for 2 from 30 overs.
TWO RUNS SHY
Earlier,overnight batsmen Taruwar Kohli (144) and Mandeep Singh (175) added 64 runs to the score before perishing trying to accelerate the run-rate. Their 282-run partnership for the third wicket was just two runs shy of the decade-old third wicket record partnership for Punjab between Pankaj Dharmani and Ravneet Ricky. Harbhajan came on the crease after the loss of Uday Kaul and Mayank Sidana.
Using the long handle to good effect,Harbhajan tore apart the Odisha bowling in a 40-ball 49.
Brief scores: Odisha 205 and 110 for 2 in 30 overs (Gobind Poddar 52,Sandeep Sharma 2 for 20) vs Punjab 560 in 150 overs (Mandeep Singh 175,Taruwar Kohli 144,Amitoze Singh 56,Ravi Inder 50)
