Railways have Punjab in a spot
Punjab, forced on the defensive by some attacking bowling by Railways, cobbled up a modest 247 for eight on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final in Mohali, on Thursday.
Captain Vikram Rathore, Ravneet Ricky and Ankur Kakkar
were the only batsmen to show some defiance to the Railway
bowlers after Punjab were put in to bat by the visitors.
Harvinder Singh claimed four crucial wickets while
Kulamani Parida took two.
Punjab were off to a disastrous start, losing opener
Munish Sharma to Harvinder without putting up any run on the
board. Ricky and Rathore settled things down a bit with a
76-run stand for the second wicket before Harvinder struck
again to dismiss Ricky for 33 including five fours.
Rathore perished soon after, caught by Abhay Sharma off
Sanjay Bangar for 44.
Ankur, who came at the fall of Ricky, played some
delightful shots to step up the scoring but wickets fell at
regular intervals.
Pankaj Dharmani (18) and Reetinder Singh Sodhi (15) could
not make much of an impact and both were bowled by Parida.
Punjab's only hope of putting up a big score were dashed
when Ankur was trapped leg before wicket by Harvinder for 53.
The batsman hit seven fours in his knock.
Sanjay Mahajan (12) and Sandeep Sawal (28) chipped in
with useful scores down the order to enable Punjab reach a
respectable total.
At close Gagandeep Singh was batting on 16 while Vineet
Sharma was yet to open his account.
Scoreboard
Punjab (1st innings):
M Sharma c Yere Goud b Harvinder 0
R Ricky c and b Harvinder 33
V Rathore c A Sharma b S Bangar 44
A Kakkar lbw Harvinder 53
P Dharmani b Parida 18
R S Sodhi b Parida 15
S Mahajan c A Sharma b Harvinder 12
S Sawal b Tejinder 28
G Singh batting 16
V Sharma batting 0
Extras (B5, LB9, NB11, W3) 28
Total (for 8 wkts, 90 overs) 247
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-76, 3-91, 4-114, 5-130, 6-159,
7-220, 8-247.
Bowling: Harvinder 20-5-64-4, Z Hussain 19-6-38-0,
S Bangar 15-2-57-1, Tejinder Pal Singh 6-0-15-1, K Parida
25-8-49-2, S Khanolkar 5-3-10-0.
Mail Cricket Editor
