How do you plan to save your team from relegation?” With just two points from four games, Railway coach Vinod Sharma might have had the courage to answer that question posed by a scribe, but his team wasn’t very confident. “Yes, at one point of time we were seriously scared of losing out,” admitted Sanjay Bangar, as the deafning sounds of dhol scyncronised with the relief expressions from the Railway skipper.Just 45 minutes after tea on Day three of this Elite Group Ranji trophy semifinal, the host team overcame a spirited debutant in Pragyan Ojha and an inconsistent young Hyderabad team to book their ticket into the final. Amit Pagnis — unlucky to remain not out on 98 — and Yere Goud knocked off the requisite target of 157 runs after an incisive spell early Sunday morning by Harvinder Singh had Hyderabad all out for 170 in their second innings.“The entire team was tense,” recalls Sharma “but ask my players and they will tell you that their coach was never scared of being relegated. It was important to boost their morale at that time. I knew the value of my team and we kept beleiving in ourselves.” JP Yadav, one of the special performers in this side reveals how. “Going into the match against AP, Sanjay called us all into the dressing room and said ‘let us all play for our reputation’. That one line was enough and from thereon we never looked back. The rythym kept on coming.”Brief scores: Hyderabad 166 & 170 (Daniel Manohar 75; Harvinder 3-32, Murali Kartik 3/48) lost to Railways 180 & 160/3 (Amit Pagnis 98 n.o)
