PANAJI
Goa suffered a humiliating innings and 133 runs defeat against Punjab in their Ranji Trophy ‘Group D' match at Goa Cricket Association academy ground in Porvorim on Friday.
The hosts were bowled out for 256 runs, following-on in their second innings soon after the lunch interval. Goa would have lost by an even bigger margin if the last-wicket partnership between Darshan Misal, who remained not out on 64, and No. 11 batsman Rituraj Singh (51) not put on 90 runs. This was also the highest partnership of the Goa innings.
A similar story had transpired in the first innings when Amit Yadav and Rituraj came together in a 70-run last-wicket stand that took Goa's total to 246 runs. Punjab, who were always going to be a strong opponent for Goa, had posted a mammoth first innings total of 635 runs. They earned seven points from this victory.
Beginning the fourth and final day at the score of 67/2 and 322 runs in deficit, Goa captain Sagun Kamat was the first man to be dismissed when he had added eight runs to his overnight score of 26 runs. He became the first wicket of the match for burly medium-pacer Manpreet Singh Gony.
Reagan Pinto (4), Amogh Desai (14), Saurabh Bandekar (6), wicket-keeper Samar Dubashi (1), Shadab Jakati (12) and Amit Yadav (17) came into bat and exited without putting in any notable effort in the face of some challenging bowling by left-arm spinner Vinay Choudhary (3/57), leg-break bowler Raghu Sharma (3/117) and Gony (2/8).
Darshan Misal and later Rituraj, however, took the attack to the opposition. 25-year-old Darshan, who bowls left-arm spin, already has three hundreds in First-Class cricket, having made his debut against Services in 2012. His highest score is 119 and at an average of 35.06, Darshan has scored 1718 runs in the 32 Ranji matches he has played till date. This record gives enough evidence that Darshan is a more than a capable
batsman.
Everybody wanted Darshan to give a glimpse of the talent in him and he did not disappoint. The elegant left-hander showed that he can bat against a strong attack where his more illustrious and experienced team-mates had let the team down. The boy from Curchorem, remained unbeaten on 64 runs of 111 balls. He hit eight boundaries and one sixer in his knock which was a mixture of caution and aggression.
Rituraj made a strokeful 51 of 42 deliveries. Nine fours and one sixer, studded the medium-pacer's knock.
Goa, who have two points from three matches, next go on to play Services in New Delhi from November 9-12.
