Dravid's words of wisdom

The team has worked very hard on the catching, but coach K Jeshwanth revealed that more than the hard yards, it was words of encouragement from Test cricket’s most prolific catcher that had done the trick.

“Catching was a worry but we did fairly well in the last game,” Jeshwanth said on Monday.

“Rahul (Dravid) passed on a message. He had a tough time in England. He scored a lot of runs but was dropping catches. He said that at times like these, it is best to unlearn, not get obsessed with it, maybe not practice that skill for a while.

He said ‘You tend to get tense and then even hope that the ball doesn’t come to you, so it is better to take your mind away from the issue at training and come back fresh’. We tried that and it did work for us against Orissa.”

Refusing to take injury-ravaged Punjab for granted, the former skipper went on, “Punjab is a good team. We want to finish on top in this group so that we will take on the weakest team in the quarterfinals. Right now, Rajasthan (defending champions) seem to be out of the competition and that gives us an opportunity to try and secure the top spot.”

Punjab coach Vikram Rathour threw light on the fitness issues within his team. “Manpreet Gony has a side strain and is out of this game,” the former India opener said. “Mandeep Singh has twisted his ankle, Bipul Sharma has fever and Brainder Sran has dislocated his finger. We will take a call on them tomorrow.

“We want to do well and get as many points as we can -- three or five. We still haven’t secured our spot (in the quarters),” added Rathour, referring to the fact that Punjab have 12 points from five matches -- the same as Uttar Pradesh -- and are lying third in the Group A table.