Wicked wicket scalps 18 batsmen

On a minefield,spinners claim 15 wickets; Railways 71 for 8 in reply to Saurashtras 175

At the end of a day in which wickets fell like nine pins,Railways coach Abhay Sharma simulated Prashant Awasthis dismissal for the benefit of his team,minutes after stumps at the Karnail Singh Stadium. With his side tottering at 71 for 8 chasing Saurashtras first innings toal of 175,Sharma,though not critical,demonstrated where his young charge went wrong. After hitting Saurashtra off-spinner Kamlesh Makwana for a six over mid-on,Awasthi,on the backfoot,chose to leave the next delivery,that went on to crashed into his stumps.

In effect,Awasthis not offering a shot on a wicket that offered generous turn,explained the home teams predicament. After dismissing Saurashtra for 175,the Sanjay Bangar-led side capitulated in spectacular fashion,with left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja claiming 6 for 22.

At stumps,Railways were still 104 runs adrift of Saurashtras total with Mahesh Rawat batting on 31 and Krishnakant Upadhyay on 0.

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Jadeja bowled unchanged from the Pavilion end after replacing seamer Sandip Maniar in the fourth over of the innings. Shreyas Khanolkar was the first Railways batsman to walk back. Trying to sweep Jadeja,the ball caught the toe of his bat and looped for a simple catch to debutant Arpit Vasavada at short leg.

Three balls later,Nitin Bille was given out caught behind for a duck. Soon,Makwana ripped one away from left-handed Shivakant Shukla,who could only edge it to Cheteshwar Pujara in the slips. Jadeja then struck the body blow,claiming Bangar for nought. In what was almost a replay of the Awasthi dismissal,Bangar left one that straightened a bit to hit his stumps.

All-rounder Marripuri Suresh,who had hung around for 15 minutes for his 7 runs then got the delivery that struck fear in the home team. Jadeja got one to rear from length,and the left hander could only glove it to Pujara in backward short leg. Ironically,the turner that was designed to put Saurashtra under pressure in this do-or-die match,ended up consuming the home team.

Even as wickets fell at the other end,Mahesh Rawat (31 batting) was the only batsman to show any sort of application on the pitch. Rawat used his feet well,going down the track on a number of occasions to kill the spin.

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In all he has hit four boundaries and a six off Makwana to keep the Saurashtra spinners at bay. Perhaps Rawat took a leaf out of Saurashtras debutant opener Sheldon Jackson (39),who top scored for his side earlier in the day. Jackson hit five boundaries and a huge six in his 65-ball innings,before he was stumped off Yadav. Saurashtra looked like they had a measure of the pitch,going into lunch at 59/1.

But the situation went rapidly downhill in the second session. Left-arm spinner Ashish Yadav triggered the collapse when he had Chirag Pathak caught at forward short leg,and finally ended with figures of 4 for 35. Konwar struck twice,including the key wickets of Jadeja and Shitanshu Kotak. Bangar too got into the act with two dismissals.

In what set the tone for the day,Saurshtras dressing room was in raptures after skipper Jaydev Shah won the toss and elected to bat. That was half the battle won,on this pitch.

Brief scores: Saurashtra 175 in 66.2 overs (Shelden Jackson 39,Ravindra Jadeja 28; Ashish Yadav 4/35,Sanjay Bangar 2/19,Arlen Konwar 2/35) vs Railways 71/8 in 19.5 overs (Mahesh Rawat batting 31; Ravindra Jadeja 6/22,Kamlesh Makwana 2/32)