A game of cricket is not over till a team has actually won it.
Gujarat probably forgot this age-old, but always relevant, axiom. For nothing else can explain the team's performance and their anti-climatic one-wicket win over the Railways in the Ranji Trophy Plate Division final at the Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday.
Chasing a measly 150-run target to romp home, and resuming at their comfortable overnight position at 30/0, Gujarat almost did what India recently did in Sydney the controversy thereafter completely excluded in this context. The latter could blame the umpires to an extent but Gujarat, had they lost, wouldn't have had that luxury.
To put it bluntly, Gujarat goofed things up themselves, a la India against Michael Clarke (remember?). Coasting along at 124/4, Gujarat rather inexplicably stumbled to 143/9, before managing to reach rather overhaul the required target.
Jay Desai (17) and Siddharth Trivedi (2) were the two men who ensured Gujarat don't end up gifting the match to their opponents after having done all the hard work early on.
Starting the day at 30/0, Gujarat added just four more runs to their total before they suffered a double blow. Former India Test player Sanjay Bangar first had opener Nilesh Modi (18) caught behind and three balls later trapped captain Parthiv Patel (0) in front.
With both the players who made major contributions in the first innings dismissed, Railways made further inroads Rajesh Tabiar (13) and Niraj Patel (27) to reduce Gujarat to 78/4.
Mohnish Parmar (41) combined with Hem Joshipura (7) to steady the innings by putting in 46 runs for the fifth wicket. However, Murali Kartik (2/48), who will fly to Australia for next month's ODIs if they happen, scalped both the above batsmen to start the rut.
Bangar soon joined the party by claiming Timil Patel (0), Ashraf Makda (1) and Amit Singh (0) in quick succession. The 35-year-old's 6/53 in the second essay besting his first innings effort of 5/54 and brought Railways to the brink of what would have been an astounding win.
But it was not to be as the last Gujarat pair hung on and were helped by some generosity by the Railways fielders. Desai was dropped by Santosh Saxena off Kartik when he had scored only four and he went on to hit the winning boundary.
History will record this match as one won by Gujarat just as it will record the Sydney Test as an Australian victory. But those who have been a party to it, as well as those who have witnessed it, will always remember what actually happened.
Scorecard:
Railways (1st innings): 260
Gujarat (1st innings): 280
Railways (2nd innings): 169
Gujarat (2nd innings, overnight 30/0):
N Modi c Rawat b Bangar 18
R Tabiar lbw b Bangar 13
P Patel c Siddharth Joshi b Bangar 0
N Patel c Rawat b Saxena 27
M Parmar c Parida b Kartik 41
H Joshipura c & b Kartik 7
T Patel c Rawat b Bangar 0
J Desai not out 17
A Makda b Bangar 1
A Singh lbw b Bangar 0
S Trivedi not out 2
Extras: (lb 8, w 2, nb 16) 26
Total: (for 9 wickets in 57 overs) 152
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-34, 3-51, 4-78, 5-124, 6-127, 7-131, 8-143, 9-143
Bowling: S Bangar 22-9-53-6, H Singh 10-5-28-0, S Saxena 7-5-11-1, M Kartik 17-5-48-2, K Parida 1-0-4-0