The day went along on expected lines — well, almost. Punjab batted long to pile up a massive 503 for nine before they felt they had enough to squeeze out maximum points from the match.
The script, however, went slightly awry for them towards the end when Gujarat refused to give up without a fight and ended the day at 86 for the loss of one wicket.
Once Punjab had taken the lead with plenty of wickets and time in hand, the only point of interest left in the game was what strategy Punjab would adopt to extract maximum points from the game.
Earlier, It was Gaurav Gupta's knock of 121 which enabled the hosts dominate. The middle order batsman took control of the situation after Ravneet Ricky, Saturday’s centurion, was dismissed after adding just two runs to his overnight total of 142.
While Gupta batted patiently, the others around him failed to make contributions worth mention.
The rest of the batsmen took their time to settle down but failed to convert the starts into significant scores.
{{/usCountry}}The rest of the batsmen took their time to settle down but failed to convert the starts into significant scores.
{{/usCountry}}Ishan Malhotra, however, did provide the much needed impetus to the score with a breezy 29.
Despite Punjab's big total, one can’t help but get the feeling that they took a bit longer in reaching there.