He has always found ways to score runs in precarious situations and came up with another crafty knock.
A Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter played like a lone warrior to take his team to a respected total from arduous conditions during a Ranji Trophy fixture. Had he not played a timely knock, his team could have been massively behind in the game.
Rajat Patidar, the batter of Madhya Pradesh, cracked a timely 90 in 178 deliveries, including eight boundaries and three maximums, to salvage pride for his team. When he came to the crease, Madhya Pradesh reeled at 50/3 in 16.1 overs and required a big partnership to stabilise the innings.
Rajat formed a prudent stand with the captain Shubham Sharma (61), but wickets started to tumble again as he was left alone with a few tailenders. He counterattacked by hitting a few big shots and took Madhya Pradesh to 207 in 73.5 overs when they looked set to get bundled somewhere around 170.
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43.47% of innings’ runs came off Patidar’s willow alone, and he was only among four batters to get into double digits and ended as the leading run-scorer of the innings. He has always found ways to score runs in precarious situations and came up with another crafty knock to take his team closer to Punjab’s score, even if they still fell short in the first innings.
After winning the toss, Punjab opted to bat first and did well to score 277 on a tricky deck in Chandigarh. Initially, they were in big trouble when Punjab lost five wickets for 48 runs in 20.3 overs, but Salil Arora, the wicketkeeper batter, stepped up and notched up a marvellous ton, scoring 101 runs.
Sukhwinder Singh, the lower-order batter at No.9, also played a tremendous 66-run knock to take Punjab to a fighting score. Kulwant Khejroliya snared three wickets, whereas Kumar Kartikeya and Anubhav Agarwal dismissed two batters each for Madhya Pradesh.
During their first innings, Madhya Pradesh could only reach 207 when Rajat Patidar and Shubham Sharma did the heavy lifting. Gurnoor Brar took three wickets, while three other bowlers sent two batters back each to help Punjab get a vital 70-run lead in the first innings.
This 70-run lead will be vital for Punjab as the track might not improve for batting in the remaining period. Madhya Pradesh would need to be on the money throughout Punjab’s second dig and bundle them as quickly as possible to make a contest out of it.
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