The Punjab dressing room was growing increasingly desperate as lax fielding was threatening to stretch the match to another session. With just a few minutes to go for tea and Punjab needing one more wicket to complete an outright win,Harbhajan Singh brought himself in the attack. Harbhajan himself was the victim of the butter-fingered fielders with the Odisha batsmen getting as many as eight lifelines due to the sloppiness of the fielders. After losing its seventh wicket for 233,the Odisha tailenders had made a good recovery,adding 74 more runs to cross the 300-run mark. The longer they stayed on the field,the more the possibility of a draw,after Punjab had taken a huge first innings lead. Into his first over of the spell,Harbhajan cleverly mixed up the turners and straight ones. Having watched Basant Mohanty successfully stepping out and hitting the bowlers all over the ground,Harbhajan bowled the fourth delivery a bit quicker. Beaten,Mohanty,who was going strong with a 52-ball 41,just give a simple return catch to Harbhajan. His dismissal ended Odishas second innings for 307 as Punjab won by an innings and 48 runs to pocket 7 points for the innings victory. Dropped chances Harbhajan,with three more wickets in the second inning,finished with match figures of 9 for 137 having bagged six wickets in first. Sandeep Sharma also snared three wickets. Earlier,overnight batsmen Niranjan Behera (56) and Gobind Podder (70) started the day on a bright note by adding 33 more runs to take their third wicket partnership to 133. Their quick dismissals infused a new vigour in Punjab bowlers. At 162 for 5,the victory looked a matter of just a few more overs. However,the lifeline provided by Punjab fielders to Odisha batsmen,specially Abhilash Mallick who was dropped on 12 by Jiwanjot Singh and went on to top score with 73,meant Punjab themselves were to be blamed for delaying the inevitable. The bowlers had to toil for wickets on this pitch and the way they bowled,I am sure they will take a lot of confidence for the next match. Harbhajan bowled beautifully, said Bhupinder Singh (Sr),Punjab coach. Brief scores: Odisha 205 & 307 all out in 91.4 overs (Abhilash Mallick 73,Gobind Podder 70,N Behera 56,Sandeep Sharma 3 for 64,Harbhajan Singh 3 /83,Siddharth Kaul 2/57,Manpreet Gony 2 /73) lost to Punjab 560/6 decl. Points: Punjab 7,Odisha 0.
