The Railways dressing room wore the look of a job well done for the third consecutive day of the Ranji Trophy (Elite) final, at the PCA Stadium, here on Friday. After taking a lead of 46, Railways were sitting pretty at 123/2 against Punjab.The only difference today was the fact that the hosts too had a few moments to celebrate. With Punjab skipper Pankaj Dharmani leading the charge to score his 18th Ranji Trophy ton and helping his team score 309 in reply to Railways first innings total of 355. After the day’s play, Dharmani looked forward to restricting the Railways batsman and hoped for a decent chase in the fourth innings.That will be a tall task considering the fact that the wearing pitch is already aiding the spinners. This was highlighted by the fact that Railways skipper Sanjay Bangar delayed in opting for the new ball.But the fact that Dharmani can dare to dream today was because of some gritty batting by the Punjab tail. VRV Singh and Gagandeep Singh gave Dharmani ample support to take Punjab past the 300-mark.Railways, who will be well aware of Punjab’s ‘coming from behind’ win over Mumbai in the semifinals, were not overtly confident.Despite another gritty partnership between Bangar and all-rounder Jai Prakash Yadav, the visitors termed the match as 50-50. Despite leading by 169-run, skipper Bangar was not ready to lower the guard. ‘‘It all depends on how we bat. They (Punjab) did a good job to bring the game on an even keel. Now it is our turn to get going,’’ he said.But hero of the day was once again JP Yadav. After a responsible half-century in the first innings, JP came up with an impressive five-wicket haul. Not just that, in the second inning the all-rounder was unbeaten on 64.‘‘I had already decided to pace up my innings. There is no point in defending with the kind of lead we had,’’ JP said. The India discard has already had a dream run in the season so far and is looking for the final icing on the cake. ‘‘No lead is enough. We will be looking to bat our way to the strongest possible target,’’ Yadav said.JP smashed seven fours and two sixes in 62 balls and put on 92 runs with Bangar for the third wicket.Brief scoresRailways 355 and 123-2 (Bangar batting 43, JP Yadav batting 64) vs Punjab 309 (Pankaj Dharmani 115, Ricky 47, R S Sodhi 51, J P Yadav 5-83, Harvinder 2-66, Madan Yadav 2-70).
