Railways vs Punjab 2.0: 32 overs, 5 wickets and no casualties

No, it was not Gabba’s Day 5 pitch full of cracks on the surface creating confusion for the batsmen, about whether to leave the ball or play. Most of the time they took it on their bodies. With neutral curator SP Singh having left after the first day, the local curator Rakesh Mehrotra was given the overnight job to prepare a fresh pitch after the four-day Ranji game was switched to a two-day affair. The local curators did a reasonable job as there were no injuries and only one batter was hit on the helmet.
The fixture was suspended on Wednesday after the surface was deemed “dangerous and unfit for play” the match officials. The game restarted on a fresh pitch on Thursday.
Only 32 overs were bowled in the day as the match re-started at 2 PM and only 17 overs were bowled after the tea before bad light forced the umpires to call it a day. At the end of the day’s play, captains from both the side Mandeep Singh (Punjab) and Karn Sharma (Railways) refused to make any comments on the pitch.
The Indian Express also tried to reach out to Ashish Bhowmick, the national head of curators, but he didn’t answer the repeated calls.
Railways were reeling at 59 for 5 after being put into bat first Punjab with wicketkeeper-batsman Upendra Singh (10 batting) and skipper Karn Sharma (1 batting) at the crease. Both teams made one change in their playing XI; Rahul Rawat debuted after veteran Arindam Ghosh was ruled out due to a fractured wr. Punjab handed the debut to pacer Gurnoor Brar.
The two debutants had a contrasting day in the office. Rawat was hit on the helmet Siddharth Kaul on the fourth over of the match, he carried on after the regular concussion check. On the other hand, Brar cleaned up Pratham Singh with a pinpoint yorker. Unlike the first two days, the fresh pitch was not that uneven but still it was a bowler-friendly track, and the Punjab bowlers made the most of it.
The match stopped briefly after debutant Rawat was hit on the helmet and after the nod from match referee Youraj Singh, the umpires instructed the batters to carry on.
“It was a damp wicket. We approached the match referee after Rahul Rawat was hit in the helmet, but he didn’t act,” said a Railway official.
Railways openers Vivek Singh and Rahul Rawat played a couple of delightful cover drives off half-volleys but the moment Siddharth Kaul brought his length back, he looked unplayable and there were lots of oohs and aahs from the Punjab slip cordon. From the other end, Gurnoor Brar (9-4-8-1) was equally impressive.
Kaul, who was the pick of the bowlers for Punjab told The Indian Express: “I can’t make any comments on the pitch as I am neither the captain nor the coach. My job is to take wickets for Punjab and I am happy with my effort.”
One of the Punjab batsmen, who was hit on the helmet on Day 2 said: “It was a better surface. It is not life-threatening. We will try to wrap up the innings quickly tomorrow and try to gain a first-innings lead.”
The stats are null and void
With the game starting fresh on a new surface the scores of the cancelled match won’t go into the records.
“The match was not resumed, it was a re-start. Whatever happened in the first two days won’t go into any records. It is null and void. The match is being played on the fresh pitch, the teams have made changes in their playing XI, so this game will go on the record books, not the previous one,” said a BCCI umpire.
Karnail Singh likely to get suspended again
Railways are set to play their next three matches against Madhya Pradesh (December 27-30), Jammu and Kashmir (January 3-6) and Tripura (January 10-13) at the Karnail Singh Stadium. There are chances that the venue is likely to be barred from hosting first-class matches and the Railways will have to look for another venue.
It won’t be the first time that Karnail Singh Stadium will be suspended for hosting a first-class match. It has come under the scanner in 2011, after BCCI put the venue on a watch l for producing poor pitches. A year later, it was banned for two years from hosting games after a committee arrived at a conclusion that local curators had deliberately under-prepared the wicket to help Railways, forcing the team to shift their home base to Bhubaneswar.