After three dull days that ensured nothing but ennui, the Ranji Trophy Plate Division final between Railways and Gujarat at the Brabourne Stadium suddenly came into life on Tuesday.
And the credit for that goes entirely to the Gujarat bowlers.
Amit Singh (3/22), Mohnish Parmar (2/50), Timil Patel (2/17) and Ashraf Makda (2/30) combined well to dismiss Railways for a paltry 169 in their second innings thereby ensuring that a Gujarat victory will be a mere formality when play resumes on Wednesday.
Chasing exactly 150 runs to win the final, Gujarat were 30 for no loss at close of stumps.
The Railways' second outing was doomed from the very outset. In the fifth ball of the day's first over, Sanjay Bangar was dismissed by Siddharth Trivedi. In was sheer coincidence that the ball was the first he faced during the day. He was yet to open his account despite facing 26 balls.
It is imperative here to mention that umpire GA Pratapkumar did a Mark Benson (remember the Sourav Ganguly dismissal in Sydney?) when he gave Bangar out even without consulting his square leg counterpart CR Mohite when the ball appeared to have dropped just off slip fielder Niraj Patel.
However, if you are looking for any controversies in this case there aren't any.
Bangar's dismissal also started a little collapse in the Railways innings that saw them get reduced to 90/6 at lunch.
Harshad Rawle (45), who had scored an impressive ton in the first essay, again came to rescue the Railways. He and Raja Ali (46) put on a partnership of 58 runs for the seventh wicket and helped get their side back on track.
But Rawle's dismissal he offered a regulation return catch to Timil Patel followed by Harvinder Singh's (8) in the last over before tea all but ended Railways hopes of a total with a semblance of respectability.
Gujarat struck again in the first over after tea dismissing Ali and it was only a couple of big hits by Santosh Saxena (13 not out) which ensured the Railways pose a victory of exactly 150.
As mentioned earlier, Gujarat were well served by all their bowlers but it was Patel who took both the crucial wickets Rawle and Ali.
Openers Nilesh Modi (15 not out) and Rajesh Tabiar (13 not out) negotiated the day's remaining 20 overs. Gujarat need only 120 more runs on the final day's play to wrap up the match in their favour.
Scorecard:
Railways (1st innings): 260
Gujarat (1st innings): 280
Railways (2nd innings, overnight 14/1):
S Joshi c P Patel b Makda 1
S Bangar c N Patel b Trivedi 0
M Kartik lbw b Makda 18
H Rawle c & b T Patel 45
S Sanyal c N Patel b Singh 18
M Rawat c Joshipura b Singh 0
K Sharma lbw b Singh 7
R Ali lbw b T Patel 46
H Singh c P Patel b Parmar 8
S Saxena not out 13
K Parida lbw b Parmar 2
Extras: (b 5, lb 4, nb 2) 11
Total: (all out in 76 overs) 169
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-23, 3-23, 4-60, 5-63, 6-79, 7-137, 8-154, 9-154, 10-169
Bowling: S Trivedi 16-5-41-1, A Makda 17-7-30-2, M Parmar 22-4-50-2, A Singh 11-3-22-3, T Patel 10-3-17-2
Gujarat (2nd innings, target: 150 runs):
N Modi not out 15
R Tabiar not out 13
Extras: (nb 2) 2
Total: (for no loss in 20 overs) 30
Bowling: S Bangar 5-1-13-0, H Singh 5-2-10-0, S Saxena 4-4-0-0, M Kartik 5-2-3-0, K Parida 1-0-4-0
