Ranji Trophy 2015: Yuvraj Singh gone, Punjab staring at end

The crowd which had turned up to watch Yuvraj bat went away disappointed after he was dismissed for 14. (Source: Express photo by Kevin D’Souza)

A few hundred people had braved the muggy Mumbai weather and sat patiently on the faded bucket seats that filled the Sunil Gavaskar stand at the Wankhede stadium. After a few desultory hours under the sun, and after a 101-run partnership between Jeewanjot Singh and Mandeep Singh, when finally Yuvraj Singh, the reason for their visit to the ground on this Saturday, came to bat, he would only end up disappointing them as he departed for a paltry 14. Even before he could reach the pavilion, his fans had left the stadium to resume their normal lives.

It was a normal day of cricket too. By the end of the day, Punjab were left with a tough fight to save the game — six wickets in hand, an entire day to survive, still trailing by 171, and the new ball just three overs away.

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Mumbai had batted for an hour in the morning to extend the lead to 415, before chipping away slowly at Punjab on a comatose pitch. The first couple of wickets had come pretty quickly — Manan Vohra, who had made an elegant 34 in the first innings, was strangled down the leg side by Shardul Thakur though he registered his unhappiness at the caught-behind decision before sulking away.

Soon, Uday Kaul fell, jabbing at left-arm spin of Harmeet Singh and edging to short-leg. Luckily for Punjab, Jeewanjot and Mandeep ensured there wouldn’t be a repeat of first-innings surrender. There wasn’t anything in the pitch but the Mumbai attack tried to create something with their accuracy. The pair managed to get a partnership going, with Jeewanjot constantly talking to his partner in the initial stages. Jeewanjot, who seemed in a rush in the first innings, when walking down the track to the medium pacers, was more sedate today. He left well, and didn’t take any unnecessary risks. Mandeep was a bit more eager to play his shots, and he too settled down to a steady rhythm.

Jeewanjot had reached 91 when he was run out by some smart fielding from Harmeet, who dived to his left at short midwicket to make a half stop and recovered quickly to fire in a throw to beat a diving Jeewanjot’s attempt to compete the second run. The crowd made quite a bit of noise as Yuvraj descended the staircase and made his way slowly to the middle. There were a couple of pleasing drives — through point and cover against Thakur — but he fell to the non-specialist offspinner Akhil Herwadkar.

It was perhaps too full to sweep but he was also a touch late in getting down on his knees and ended up bottom-edging on to his leg stump. His dismissal has left Punjab with a fight, and Mumbai with hope of an outright victory.

Brief scores: Punjab 154 & 244/4 in 77 overs (Jeewanjot Singh 91, Mandeep Singh 82*, H Chawla 31*) vs Mumbai 569/8 decl in 124 overs (S Iyer 200, S Yadav 78, A Tare 137 n.o., D Kulkarni 42; Barinder Sran 3/87).