Punjab register impressive victory over Haryana

Gurgaon: A responsible innings of 53 by Pankaj Dharmani and fine bowling by the spinners enabled Punjab to register an impressive victory over Haryana by 71 runs in their last one day league encounter of the North Zone Ranji Trophy at the Nehru Stadium here yesterday.

In reply to Punjab's total of 220 for 7 in fifty overs Haryana was bundled out for 149, their lowest total against Punjab, in 41.1 overs.

Punjab skipper Vikram Rathore elected to bat first after winning the toss. Punjab made three changes in the team that played agaist Delhi. Sarandeep Singh, Rakesh Saini and Sanjay Mahajan were included in place of Ritender Sodhi, Harbhajan Singh, and Amit Sharma. Haryana left out Amarjeet Kaypee and Sanjay Balwan and brought in debutant Satish Ohlan and Jasvir Singh. Punjab's decision to bat first immediately backfired as Haryana got an early breakthrough. In the second over of the innings bowled by Feroz Ghyas, Sandeep Sharma edged a ball pitched outside the off stump and was declared caught behind. After the addition of six runs to the total, Vineet Jain struck to get the vital wicket of Rathore. An incoming ball took the inside edge of his bat and Ajay Ratra picked up the catch behind the stumps. Rathore could make only one run.

Pankaj Dharmani and Yuvraj Singh batted with a sense of responsibility to raise Punjab's hopes for a tall score. They added 99 runs for the third wicket before Yuvraj was run out for 42. His knock included three boundaries. He batted 109 minutes and faced 81 balls. Dharmani, who was the next to be dismissed, scored 53 runs (107 minutes,83 Balls,6x4s). He was brilliantly caught by Sonu Sharma at square leg after mistiming a shot off Sanjay Dalal. Another partnership of 60 runs for the sixth wicket between Rakesh Saini (34) and Harminder Jugnu (32) helped Punjab raise a respectable total.

For Haryana, medium pacer Vineet Jain took two wickets for 48 runs. However, their spinners kept the flow of runs under check. Both the medium pacers Vineet jain and Feroz Ghyas gave away 123 runs in their allotted quota of overs whereas the three spinners Pankaj Thakur, Sonu Sharma and Sanjay Dalal allowed the batsmen to add 89 runs in the remaining 30 overs.

Chasing a victory target of 221 at an asking rate of 4.42, Haryana were never in the hunt. Opener Jasvir Singh was the top scorer. He made 42 runs from 65 balls with 7 hits to the fence. The other Haryana batsmen played in an irresponsible fashion. Wickets at regular intervals as Punjab spinners Navdeep Singh (3 for 22), Yuvraj Singh (3 for 25) and Sarandeep Singh (2 for 19) ran through the line up.