Rasool's gutsy 103 off 137 balls (11x4, 1x6) however, wasn't enough as J&K were dismissed for 277, falling 27 runs short of Punjab's first innings total of 304.
That said, J&K new ball bowlers, Umar Nazir and Mohammed Mudhasir ensured that the game didn't drift away from their reach by getting rid of the openers early in the second dig as Punjab ended the day at 15 for two, having an overall lead of 42.
The J&K allrounder sounded optimistic of his team's chances to make it to the semis from here on. "We will try to get them out as early as possible by disciplined bowling. It will be a crucial day for us. We want to win this game," Rasool said.
Things weren't that bright for J&K when play began. Bandeep Singh was trapped leg before by Manpreet Gony in the second over of the day. Opener Adil Rishi stitched a partnership of 46 runs with Ian Dev Singh for the third wicket before VRV Singh castled the latter to reduce them to 62 for three.
Rasool took over from there and constructed two important partnerships with Rishi and Samiullah Beigh to take his team past the 250-run mark. The all-rounder put together 81 with Adil for the fourth wicket and then added 86 with Beigh for the seventh wicket.
At that stage, J&K looked all set to cross the 300-run barrier but Rasool was cleaned up by a Sandeep Sharma delivery that kept low. With 254 for seven, it didn't take much time for Punjab to run through the last three batsmen who managed to just add just 23 runs.
Sharma bagged four wickets while Gony and VRV Singh got two scalps each. With both openers back in the hut all eyes will be on the out of form Yuvraj Singh to bail his team out.
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