With the Railways versus Mumbai Ranji Trophy match tantalising poised, the prospect of spending a lazy Sunday afternoon at Karnail Singh Stadium to watch a keen bat and ball contest seemed mouth watering. But a dull draw and mundane procedings on field meant that the only way one could have made the trip to the stadium worthwhile was by finding a hammock and relaxing under the blanket of a pleasant wintery sunshine. SCOREBOARD MUMBAI (1ST INNINGS): 248 RAILWAYS (1ST INNINGS): 282/8 decl. MUMBAI (2ND INNINGS): Vinayak Mane lbw JP Yadav 62, Amit Vilaskar b Harvinder Singh 0, Wasim Jaffer c K Parida b JP Yadav 117, Nishit Shetty b K Parida 2, S Manjrekar st Sanjay Wankhede b K Parida 9, Ramesh Powar c S Khanolkar b K Parida 25, Vinayak Samant b JP Yadav 0, Robin Morris lbw JP Yadav 0, Sairaj Bahutule not out 6, Paras Mhambray lbw JP Yadav 6 Extras: (b-9, lb-3, nb-1, w-2) 15 Total: (for nine wkts decl; 75 overs) 242 Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-140, 3-143, 4-159, 5-215, 6-215, 7-215, 8-231, 9-242 Bowling: Harvinder Singh 13-3-33-1, S Saxena 8-1-22-0, JP Yadav 21-5-47-5, K Parida 25-3-100-3, Yere Goud 1-0-5-0, TP Singh 7-1-23-0 Railways (2nd innings): JP Yadav c A Vilaskar b R Powar 5, A Pagnis c V Mane b R Powar 14, TP Singh not out 25, Yere Goud 20; Extras: (b-1, w-1) 2 Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-21 Bowling: Paras Mhambray 3-1-9-0, N Kulkarni 2-2-0-0, S Bahutule 9-4-27-0, R Powar 8-1-27-2, S Manjrekar 1-0-2-0 Railway bowlers took the field on the final day of the match today with their eyes off the watches and minds on getting a few early wickets. A quick end to the Mumbai innings to give their batsman enough time was their brief before the match. But as Wasim Jaffer (117) and Vinayak Mane (62) saw through the first session without any mishap the writing on the Ranji Trophy points sheet seemed obvious.Defending champs Railways despite the one point they gained here in the end might not reach the semi-final this year while Mumbai, despite going home empty-handed, will make it to the last four with the seven points gained from the previous games.If one goes into the nitty gritty of the boredom on field, Mumbai declared their second inning at 242/9 after tea which meant Railways needed to score 209 from 23 overs to go for an outright win. But as the Railmen opted to spend the weekend peacefully rather than roll their sleeves and fight it out the match ended with the hosts finishing at 66 the match proved to be a futile excercise for both the teams. With Delhi and Rajasthan scoring outright wins, Railways are now pushed to the wall with the one point gaiend here being too little and coming too late. Mumbai, who now need just one point to qualify for the semis, will look forward to make the grade during their year-ending game against Bengal.But there will be one man who might be pretty pleased by his outing. Railways’ JP Yadav scored a quickfire 60 with the aid of three sixes and also had an impressive figures of 5 By the way, he is among the probables for World Cup. Aren’t our selectors supposed to be looking for an all-rounder?
