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Journalism of Courage
Punjab’s Jaskaran Singh Buttar is usually a shy character. Until a day back,Buttar was of the opinion that a bowler should refrain from any kind of a confrontation with the batsman. His reasoning was simple.
You never know when these batsmen take their revenge, he said. A day later he was caught contradicting his own statement,just minutes before stumps on Day Three. Buttar jumped in elation and grunted at Delhi’s Mithun Manhas after trapping him for a duck,to signal the fall of the hosts’ third wicket in the evening with the score reading 60.
Buttar knew how important that wicket was for Punjab as Manhas has been Delhi’s game changer this season,having scored three hundreds already. By the end of the day,Buttar,alongside Manpreet Gony and Sandeep Sharma,had picked up a wicket apiece to set up what could likely give Punjab an outright win at Roshanara. On Wednesday,the final day of the game,Punjab will start seven wickets away from victory while counterparts Delhi will have to achieve an uphill task,needing another 267 runs to garner the win and six points.
Punjab were positive from the onset and knew that a lead of 300 plus would trouble the hosts on this Roshanara wicket.
It will be a test for the Delhi batters and they will have to play out all three sessions if they are to have a shot at the win and they will know that scoring runs will be the only way to survive. With the Punjab bowlers getting a lot of help from the wicket,a defensive approach at this stage could end up being lethal for Delhi.
Delhi could have avoided this precarious situation had they not dropped catches which loosened their grip on the match.
They were also not helped by some very ordinary bowling post lunch by the seamers and some intelligent batting by the Punjab lower order,which helped visitors post 402 runs in their second innings,thus setting up a target of 327 for Delhi.
Fielding lapse
Both Jiwanjot Singh and Mandeep Singh continued in similar fashion as Day Two,dominating the first session completely. Had Unmukt Chand not dropped Jiwanjot at 115 at gully off Ashish Nehra in the third over the day,Delhi could have still gotten into the game. But that wasn’t the case as Delhi bowlers sprayed the ball around and were thrashed for runs. At lunch,Punjab had added 102 runs with Mandeep walking back to the pavilion on 80. His knock had eight fours and a huge six over midwicket off Nehra. The 159-run partnership was put to rest with the fall of his wicket.
Soon Jiwanjot too walked back falling short of his 150 by three runs. Navdeep Saini bowled a nagging line and picked up an edge off the opener’s bat to the wicket keeper. Punjab were 289/5 and lead by 213 runs.
By then Punjab had already built a solid platform but they still aimed for 300,a target which would give them the time and the confidence to defend over four sessions. So tailenders Gurkeerat Mann and Gitansh Khera kept the scoring rate up.
Though the odd ball kept surprising the batsmen from length,the duo played their shots and punished the lose deliveries. Mann went for runs while Khera turned the strike over.
Jiwanjot’s was not the only chance that was put down by Delhi. Late in Punjab’s innings Sidharth Kaul edged his first ball to Manhas at second slip off Rajat Bhatia. Manhas dropped him and the Punjab pacer ended up scoring a crucial unbeaten 32. His two partnerships 41 with Khera and 32 with Gony for tenth wicket – helped Punjab get to 326.
While Kaul showed that he could bat and provided Khera confidence from the other end. Khera played risk free cricket to score 49 before he edged one to Virender Sehwag. Then Gony and Kaul broke loose,quickly putting up 32 runs. Kaul’s 32 had five boundaries through the off side while Gony hit a six before falling to Nehra,his fourth wicket of the innings.
Brief scores: Punjab 74 & 402 (J Singh 147,M Singh 80*; A Nehra 4/101,N Saini 3/89) Delhi 150 & 60/3 (V Rawal 35,G Gambhir batting 22; S Sharma 1/11, J Buttar 1/4,M Gony 1/24 ).
