Spectators’ presence can be such a novelty in domestic cricket. And Manpreet Grewal entertained the sparse crowd at the VCA Stadium here on Thursday with a flurry of shots.
But his eight 6s apart, there was little of note on the final day of the Ranji Trophy match with Tamil Nadu garnering three points and Punjab one from the drab draw.
Tamil Nadu scored 103 for one in 37 overs in its second innings when the play was called off. Abhinav Mukund (67) and Kaushik Gandhi (21) were at the crease.
Earlier, Punjab, trailing on the first innings, resumed at 121 for two, and declared at 375 for five, presenting Tamil Nadu a target of 306 in a minimum of 52 overs.
Tamil Nadu was not tempted having secured the first innings lead to boost its points tally to 23 from six matches, three less than Mumbai in similar matches. Gujarat has 21 from five and Punjab 17 from six in the same group.
An outright result was hardly on TN’s mind even as Punjab looked to make something out of the final day’s play. Uday Kaul made 65 (157b, 7x4), Mandeep Singh 128 (160b, 17x4, 2x6), Gurkeerat Mann 55 (45b, 9x4) and Grewal 66 (36b, 3x4, 8x6). The scoring rate was brisk and Tamil Nadu was hard-pressed to check the flow of runs. Grewal, popularly known as Gony, belted the Tamil Nadu attack with disdain. It did not matter if seamers K. Vignesh and Aswin Crist pitched the ball in the right slot. They came within Grewal’s firing range and were dismissed to all parts of the ground. In one Crist over, Grewal sent four sixes in four directions. One such shot sailed out of the stadium and needed to be replaced. The spectators, even if just a handful, loved it but the game slipped into a meaningless zone soon.
The scores:
Punjab — 1st innings: 284.
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 354.
Punjab — 2nd innings: Manan Vohra c Jagadeesan b Vignesh 41, Jiwanjot Singh c Indrajith b Crist 0, Uday Kaul run out 65, Mandeep Singh c Karthik b Vignesh 128, Gurkeerat Mann c Gandhi b Crist 55, Manpreet Grewal (not out) 66, Mayank Siddana (not out) 7; Extras (b-4, lb-3, nb-2, w-4): 13; Total (for five wkts. decl. in 79.1 overs): 375.
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-59, 3-180, 4-287, 5-327.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Aushik Srinivas 26-4-108-0, Aswin Crist 22-3-117-2, T. Natarajan 10-2-44-0, K. Vignesh 17.1-2-72-2, Vijay Shankar 2-0-15-0, Kaushik Gandhi 1-0-1-0, Abhinav Mukund 1-0-11-0.
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: Abhinav Mukund (not out) 67, L. Suryaprakash c Jiwanjot b Mann 13, Kaushik Gandhi (not out) 21; Extras (lb-1, nb-1): 2; Total (for one wkt. in 37 overs): 103.
Fall of wicket: 1-25.
Punjab bowling: Rajwinder Singh 12-1-37-0, Siddharth Kaul 6-2-14-0, Sandeep Sharma 5-2-8-0, Gurkeerat Mann 13-2-41-1 , Mayank Siddana 1-0-2-0.
Player-of-the-Match: Kaushik Gandhi.
Points: Tamil Nadu 3; Punjab 1 .
