Ranji Trophy: J&K dream run ends as VRV scripts his own fairytale

Even when Dayal, who played out 47 balls, was clean bowled, J and K still had a substantial portion of their batting line-up to come with another 196 runs required for a win.

Wrecking havoc

This is when medium-pacer VRV Singh, making a comeback this season, struck. J and K skipper Parvez Rasool, wicket-keeper Obaid Haroon and Majid Dar were trapped leg-before wicket by VRV Singh. The first two of these batsmen were dismissed off successive balls in the 43rd over of the innings. Two overs later, Dar was dismissed and in the second-last ball of the 47th over Samiullah Beigh edged to the keeper to give VRV Singh his fourth wicket of the day and fifth of the innings.

J and K had lost four wickets to the Punjab medium-pacer for just 14 runs and their campaign was effectively finished.
Hardeep Singh, who had retired hurt after VRV Singh hit him on two occasions on the thumb came out to bat with the lower-order for company. Before VRV pierced out the wickets, he had temporarily removed Hardeep — who had batted well early when the ball was doing its bit — by getting the rising ball to hit the batsman’s bottom hand.

When he came out to bat again, Hardeep was effectively trying to stretch the match. Medium-pacers Mohd Mudhasir and Umar Nazir Mir played some big strokes but it was the final flurry before the inevitable happened — a 100-run win for Punjab. Hardeep remained unbeaten with 76.

Hardeep and Dayal had ensured that the Punjab medium-pacers didn’t strike more than once when the conditions were most helpful in the morning. Hardeep was ready to take blows to the body and follow the age-old maxim — give the first hour to the bowler — as J and K had all the time in the world to chase down the target in the five-day game.
But once Hardeep retired hurt, the game suddenly slipped away from J and K. “We tried our best, there were stages where we were in the game but Punjab bowled well. We needed partnership and it didn’t happen happen. We had a chance here but we missed it,” J and K skipper Rasool said.

While J and K’s fairytale run ended, VRV Singh had scripted one of his own. Saturday was the second time VRV Singh took a five-wicket haul this season. In his comeback to First-Class cricket after five years, the lanky medium-pacer scalped five against Haryana at Lahli in November. Saturday’s haul was more impressive given that it was a knock-out game. Not a bad return for a bowler who had fallen off the radar after a back surgery.

Brief scores: Punjab 304 & 296 vs J&K 277 & 223 (H Singh 76 n.o, A Rishi 34, VRV Singh 5/43, M Gony 3/43)