Match between Railways and Punjab suspended due to ‘dangerous and unfit’ pitch
The ongoing Ranji Trophy match between Railways and Punjab at the Karnail Singh Stadium was suspended after the pitch was deemed ‘dangerous and unfit for play’ by the match officials. The match officials have decided that the two-day match will now be played on a new pitch from Thursday. By the time the match officials decided to stop the match, 24 wickets had fallen in just 103 overs, of which 20 went to the fast bowlers. At this time Punjab had scored 18 runs for four wickets in the second innings.
The team took a 12-run lead over Railways in the first innings. Punjab batsman Abhishek Sharma told PTI, “I have never seen a wicket like this before in Ranji Trophy. The bounce of the ball could not be predicted from the pitch, due to which it was very unsafe. We have been told that the match will be played on the new pitch. “He said,” The umpires and the match referee have taken the right decision to call off today’s play and start afresh tomorrow. The players had worked hard to prepare for this match, so disappointed to see a pitch like this.
The decision was taken during the drinks break in the second session when on-field umpires Madangopal and Rajeev Godara discussed the issue with match referee Yovraj Singh. Talks were also held with Punjab captain Mandeep Singh and Railway captain Karn Sharma. This Elite D Group match will now be just two days hence making it difficult to get a result which will harm the chances of both Punjab and Railways in the tournament. Punjab’s first match against Chandigarh ended in a draw while Railways lost by 194 runs against Vidarbha.
The pitch at the Karnail Singh Stadium has been in the news for wrong reasons in the past as well. The venue was put on the watch list in 2011 by the BCCI’s technical committee due to poor pitch preparation. A year later the venue was banned from hosting matches for two years after the committee found that local curators had deliberately made wickets that were not fully prepared to help the railways. Due to this the team had to hold its home matches in Bhubaneswar.
