‘Sporting’, ‘lively’ and ‘grassy’ were some of the adjectives used to describe the pitch rolled out for the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal between Assam and Punjab, beginning on Wednesday at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Valsad.
“It’s all about making the right kind of adjustments in terms of line, length, approach and mentality,” said Barinder Singh Sran, whose brand of left-arm pace earned him plaudits in Australia recently. Sran will be itching to unleash a trick or two on the Assam batsmen, who have given a good account of themselves this season.
Punjab will also enjoy the services of skipper Harbhajan Singh, while Yuvraj Singh will miss the game due to a “back spasm”.
Punjab is in the quarterfinals by virtue of a second-place finish in Group B. Three outright victories, including a 243-run drubbing of Tamil Nadu, helped it notch up 26 points in eight matches. Uday Kaul (611 runs), Mandeep Singh (469) and Jiwanjot Singh (409) will be expected to do the bulk of the scoring. Leg-spinner Sarabjeet Ladda (25 wickets) has been the pick of the bowlers.
Assam, which stunned the likes of Delhi to finish third in Group A, has played some fearless cricket. The Sanath Kumar-coached side is dependent on K.B. Arun Karthick, a professional from Tamil Nadu with 723 runs this season. Krishna Das, who has made the most of a charmed life following a horrific road accident many years ago, has a whopping 44 wickets to show for his efforts.
The teams: Assam: Gokul Sharma (capt.), K.B. Arun Karthick, Syed Mohammad, Amit Verma, Pallav Kumar Das, Sarupam Purkayastha, Rahul Hazarika, Amit Sinha, Tarjinder Singh, Wasiqur Rahman (wicketkeeper), Krishna Das, Arup Das, Pritam Das, Dhiraj Goswami and Mrinmoy Dutta.
Punjab: Harbhajan Singh (capt.), Manan Vohra, Mayank Sinha, Barinder Sran, Pragat Singh, Rajwinder Singh, Mandeep Singh, Siddarth Kaul, Jiwanjot Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Himanshu Chawla, Deepak Bansal, Sarabjeet Ladda, Gitansh Khera (wk), Uday Kaul, Ravinder Singh and Jaskarandeep Singh.
