Yuvraj overcomes dull form, leads by example in testing conditions

After witnessing two high-profile teams losing wickets in clusters last week at a venue that is renowned for being a paradise for the seamers, the last thing Punjab would have wanted was to bat first against a team high on confidence in the form of Madhya Pradesh. Despite boasting a line-up filled with some star names compared to their opposition, Punjab were the nervier outfit going into the contest after picking up just a solitary point in their first game of the season. In contrast, Madhya Pradesh had hammered Uttar Pradesh to kickstart their campaign after their admirable finish last season, where they reached the semifinals.

Thirty-five balls into the game and Punjab had already lost two wickets. One each to the new ball bowlers Ishwar Pandey and Gourav Yadav. Enter Yuvraj Singh.

The skipper who came in at No.5 in the first innings of their previous match against Railways, slotted back into his No.4 slot to take the onus upon himself and lead by example. Mandeep Singh's absence in the middle order meant that there was more responsibility on his shoulders.

A second after facing his very first ball of the innings, he was down writhing in pain. A back-of-a-length delivery struck him just above his right knee. As the dugout watched their skipper with concern, he quickly got back onto his feet. The ball swung, bounced and kept posing problems and beat his edge a couple of times as well. Ishwar kept bringing the ball back into the left-hander to make him play but he kept hanging on.

Few balls later, he got hit again. Unable to trust the bounce initially, the 34-year-old injured his finger while trying to fend a delivery away. The physio was out again and there was another delay. By the time he came out to bat, 45 odd people had assembled in the stands, which was 'massive', compared to the number that was witnessed last week at the same venue for the marquee clash.

The fans didn't want to get disappointed. They had come only for this moment. And the southpaw obliged. He was battered and bruised by the opposition but was in no mood to give in. A couple of crisp drives fuelled his innings as he was still cautious alongside opener Jiwanjot Singh.

With MP still attacking, there were plenty of wide spaces throughout which the left-hander used to good effect by picking up quick singles. The seasoned campaigner was never known as a technically solid player at the Test level but he was a man on a mission on Thursday.

Having made a poor start to the new domestic season, he had to set things straight not only for himself but for the team too, to lift their spirits. Right before the lunch break, after looking to survive from the beginning, he broke character by gliding a short ball above the slip cordon which evoked plenty of oohs and aahs from the fielders. Little did they know that it was an indication of what was to come after the interval.

After carefully negotiating the tricky first session, vintage Yuvraj was in full flow in the second as he punished a hapless MP attack to all corners of the ground. His opposite number Devendra Bundela probably used Ishwar a lot more than he should have before the halfway mark as fatigue started to creep in. He also held back spinner Ankit Sharma possibly because of the assumption that he could offer nothing on that surface. There was also a threat of Yuvraj thumping the left-arm spinner across the ground.

Twenty-two-year-old Mukul Raghav was the next option to fall back on for MP. Yuvraj though, capitalized on the lack of pace to pick up some easy boundaries and quickly move into the 80s. The partnership kept growing and each run and each boundary was welcomed with a cheer from his teammates.

He soon drove one past midwicket to fetch a boundary to bring up his landmark 25th first-class century. It was is first in 14 innings. Even in his celebrations, the sense of relief was palpable. The knock didn't just pull Yuvraj out of a rut, but also gave Gurkeerat Singh Mann the confidence to play his shots when he arrived after Jiwonjit's departure.

Yuvraj was happy to play second fiddle to Gurkeerat as the runs dried up from his end. He focussed on rotating the strike, and ran hard despite being out in the middle for long. The youngster meanwhile, kept finding the boundary, feasted on MP's bowling attack to complete his own ton before the end of the day's play. Even though Yuvraj's knock came at a brisk pace, the two innings were totally in contrast. The senior pro had to fight and survive at the start to reap the rewards later on and at the other end, Mann effortlessly scored a century at a strike rate of 99.

The end result was the highest total ever posted on the first day of a Ranji match in Lahli. Punjab had done something that no other team has ever managed to do before at this venue and thus have put themselves in the driver's seat. And the day belonged to their skipper.