Ranji: Punjab, HP in knockout race
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 6
From amongst the four teams of the region in the Ranji Trophy, two continue to be in the race for the knockouts while the remaining two have fallen too far behind to catch up.
At the end of Round 4 of the league stage, Punjab and Himachal have a good chance of making it to the quarterfinals from Group D, but Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, placed in Group B, are languishing at the bottom.
Haryana, quite surprisingly, have lost all three matches, and are out of contention. J&K, who are placed a rung above Haryana, have managed a draw along with three losses. They, too, are out of the race. Punjab, surprisingly, sit atop Group D with 15 points from four matches, while Himachal are placed fourth with 13 points.
It’s surprising to see Punjab at the top, for they had a rather poor start to the season — they conceded the first innings lead to Himachal in the drawn opener and lost to Vidarbha in their second game at home. The side, however, made up for the sluggish start by registering outright wins against Goa and Chhattisgarh in their last two games.
“We didn’t have a good start but the team did really well to claim outright wins in the last two games,” said Punjab coach Ajay Ratra. “Our batsmen have done quite well right from the start. They have already scored three double tons. Our pacers didn’t look at their best at the start, but they seem to have regained their rhythm. So, I think we are getting better with every game.”
Consistent Himachal
Himachal, on the other hand, are unbeaten so far with three draws and one victory. Unlike Punjab, they have been very consistent. Apart from their failure to force an outright win against Goa in their second match and their first innings collapse against Bengal, Himachal have given a good account of themselves.
“Not getting full points against Goa was a bit disappointing, but then such things happen,” said Yoginder Puri, Himachal’s bowling coach. “Overall, we are quite satisfied with our performance. The team has done really well and we’ve as good a chance as anyone else in the group to make the quarterfinals.”
Puri felt the current group was quite talented and pointed out the team’s fightback against Bengal to drive his point home. “We faltered in the first innings against Bengal, but we did really well in the second innings to hold them to a draw. Bengal had a very good new ball attack in Mohammed Shami and Ashok Dinda but our batsmen fought back hard,” said Puri. With Vidarbha and Bengal, too, in the mix with 14 and 13 points respectively, the group remains wide open. Punjab and Himachal will need to raise their game a bit more to pip the other two contenders to make the last-eight stage.
