The axed Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh has scored a brilliant 177 in the Ranji Trophy game against Madhya Pradesh played in Lahli at Chaudhary Bansi Lal stadium. Though, Yuvi could just add 13 runs to his yesterday’s total but his innings deserves utmost applause, importance and attention as his innings has come in tough condition and difficult pitch. Lahli strip is known to be the fastest pitch in India; previously many few greats have even failed on this Lahli pitch. Remember Sahin Tendulkar getting out on a score of 5 at Lahli when a ball from Mohit Sharma jumped on to him touching his elbow before going on to the stumps. This pitch is none less than that of Perth, where a captain hardly includes a spinner in playing XI.

Yesterday, Yuvraj came in at a time when the team was two down on a score of just 15 runs losing the crucial wickets of Uday Kaul and Manan Vohra. Yuvraj had a double role to perform i.e. to take Punjab to a safe position along with that to perform the role of a captain. He played his part brilliantly on Day 1 scoring his 25^th first-class century in just 149 deliveries. He went off the field at the time of stumps as an overnight batsman on a core of 164*. Punjab was in a safe position with 347 runs on the board for the loss of just 3 wickets. Everyone was hoping for a double century from Yuvraj Singh but then pitch showed its true colours as Ishwar Pandey, the Madhya Pradesh bowler who had a memory of travelling to New Zealand with Indian team fell like havoc on Punjab batsman scalping 6 wickets in the first session of the day itself bundling the Punjab team on a total of 378.

Punjab batsmen could just add a total of 31 to their total losing 7 wickets in the first session. It was a big relief for Madhya Pradesh batsmen as in past Lahli has experienced some of the low encounters, the recent example being the contest between Mumbai and Tamil. Anything close to 350 can scare any team but still Madhya Pradesh did well not allowing Punjab to add big to their yesterday’s total.

Now, it will be a real test for Madhya Pradesh batsman to survive and score on this pitch. They have likes of experienced batsmen like Devendra Bundela and Naman Ojha who have to work hard to get this team going.

Maybe an early call but we may see Punjab winning this game by an innings if their fast bowlers are able to reap benefits from the pitch.