Sport - Cricket

Hard-earned draw for Railways

NEW DELHI: Irfan Pathan hurling the ball at Sanjay Bangar marred the last day’s proceedings at the Karnail Singh Stadium as Railways managed a draw against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy Super League match here.

Having over-stepped when bowling the second ball, Pathan lost his cool when Railways skipper Sanjay Bangar played the ball back to him. Shockingly, Pathan picked the ball and threw it in the direction of the batsman. For this misdeed, Pathan was fined 100 per cent of his match fee.

According to match referee Sunil Chaturvedi, he was fined under law 2.7 “for throwing the ball at the batsman in a dangerous manner to hurt him.” The incident happened at umpire Arun Datar’s end.

Railways owed it to Mahesh Rawat and Harshad Rawle’s defiant unbeaten sixth-wicket partnership. Requiring 236 runs to avoid an innings defeat, Railways resumed its innings at 33 for no loss but lost wickets at regular intervals. At one stage, Baroda looked set to clinch the match outright but Rawat and Rawle stood rooted to the crease for nearly 30 overs to bail their team out.

Overnight batsmen Amit Pagnis (67, 155 balls, 9x4s) and Bangar (55, 152 balls, 6x4s, 2x6s) carried on from where they had left off and provided a solid start to the host. After a 127 first-wicket partnership, Railways lost three quick wickets to take lunch at 132 for three. In the second session, tension grew in the home team’s dressing room as two more batsmen fell cheaply before the Rawat-Rawle pair came to rescue the side.

Rawat (57 off 90 balls with six fours and a six) was the more aggressive of the two and despatched the bad balls to the boundary with a flourish. Rawle, in contrast, played the sheet-anchor’s role and gathered 39 runs in his 153-ball innings that had only three hits to the fence.

Left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar was the wrecker-in-chief as he scalped three Railways batsmen, including the crucial one of Bangar.

Baroda, after its below-par show against Uttar Pradesh at home, collected three crucial points on the basis of its first innings lead.

The scores:

Railways — 1st innings: 224.

Baroda — 1st innings: 460.

Railways — 2nd innings: Amit Pagnis c S. Parab b Utkarsh Patel 67, Sanjay Bangar st Pinal Shah b R. Pawar 55, Karan Sharma c S. Parab b R. Pawar 0, Harshad Rawle (not out) 39, Sanjib Sanyal c P. Shah b R. Pawar 0, Yere Goud lbw b Pathan 8, Mahesh Rawat (not out) 57, Extras (b-9, lb-1, nb-4) 14, Total (for five wkts in 103 overs) 240.

Fall of wickets: 1-127, 2-129, 3-129, 4-134, 5-147.

Baroda bowling: Irfan Pathan 24-6-46-1, Salim Veragi 14-4-38-0, Rajesh Pawar 35-13-62-3, Utkarsh Patel 19-5-60-1, Ketan Panchal 11-5-24-0.

Other scores:

Super League (day four):

At Ahmedabad: Gujarat 520 drew with Hyderabad 225 & 287 for seven (Arjun Yadav 118, T.S. Suman 43). Gujarat 3, Hyderabad 1.