Shubman Gill showed his class and resilience by scoring a brilliant century, but his efforts were not enough to save Punjab from losing by an innings and 207 runs against Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy Group C match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. Despite the captain’s heroics, Punjab’s weak batting lineup could not withstand Karnataka’s impressive bowling and batting.
Starting the game on 7 on the third day on Saturday, Gill took charge of Punjab’s second innings and played a brilliant inning of 102 runs in 171 balls. The 25-year-old opening batsman displayed his trademark elegance and aggression, hitting 14 fours and three sixes.
Showing patience and composure, Gill completed his half-century in 119 balls. However, he showed momentum in the latter half of his innings and scored the next 50 runs in just 40 balls. His fluent batting was the main attraction in Punjab’s poor batting.
Gill was the eighth batsman to be dismissed by captain Yashovardhan Parantap. Gill’s century, his first in this Ranji Trophy season, brought a ray of hope, but ultimately could not save Punjab’s innings.
Punjab’s troubles started in the first innings itself, where they were out for just 55 runs, in which Gill scored only four runs. Punjab faced an uphill battle, facing a challenging margin of 420 runs after Karnataka’s mammoth first innings score of 475 runs.
By the end of the second day, Punjab were struggling at 24 for 2 in their second innings. Despite Gill’s century on the third day, the team collapsed for 213 runs in 63.4 overs. Apart from Gill, no batsman could offer much resistance. Mayank Markande (27) was the second highest run scorer.
Karnataka dominated the match from the beginning, thanks to Ravichandran Smaran’s first double century (203) in their first innings, the team registered victory. Their bowling attack, led by fast bowler Yashovardhan Parantap and leg spinner Shreyas Gopal, demolished Punjab in both the innings. Both of them took three wickets each in the second innings of Punjab, which ensured the victory of the innings.
Gill’s century is commendable, but this is a bad phase in his international career. The right-handed batsman recently struggled during the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series in Australia. In five innings of three Test matches, he scored only 93 runs at an average of 18.60, in which his highest score was 31.
After being dropped for the fourth Test, Gill returned in place of captain Rohit Sharma in the fifth Test, but failed to make an impact, scoring just 20 and 13 runs in both the innings. With this comprehensive win, Karnataka gained seven points, which also includes a bonus point for an innings win.
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