da roleta： A century knock from the dependable Pankaj Dharmani (106) enabledPunjab to score 300 runs for the loss of nine wickets against Servicesduring their North Zone Ranji match being played at Gandhi Ground,Amritsar, today
da esoccer bet： Staff Reporter08-Nov-2001A century knock from the dependable Pankaj Dharmani (106) enabledPunjab to score 300 runs for the loss of nine wickets against Servicesduring their North Zone Ranji match being played at Gandhi Ground,Amritsar, today.Services won a good toss on a grassy wicket and wisely put theiropponents in to bat. Seamers Sudhakar Ghag and Syed Javed proved thedecision right as they sent three top order batsman back to thepavilion with the scoreboard reading just 32. Ravneet Ricky (0) wasthe first to depart, in the very first over of the day, dismissed byGhag. Vikram Rathore (1)threw away his wicket in the fourth over as hechased a delivery off Javed to give a simple catch to Yashpal Singh atpoint. Munish Sharma irresponsibly steered an outgoing delivery offGhag to gully fielder PM Reddy, who did not make any mistake.Seasoned campaigner Dharmani then joined southpaw Yuvraj Singh, whowas looking in good nick from the very first ball that he faced. Theduo lived up to their reputation to get their team out of the woods.Dharmani was in tremendous touch and seemed to be unshakeable eventhough the ball was seaming a lot because of the early moisture in thewicket. The seam trio of Ghag, Javed and Pandey bowled an accurateline and length, but the pair took their team score to 97 for three atthe stroke of lunch. Dharmani completed his half century with aclassic off-drive to the boundary off Pandey.The second session of the day was dominated by Punjab as they scored99 runs and lost only the wicket of Yuvraj Singh, who lost his cooljust 54 minutes before tea. Yuvraj Singh (67) became the third victimof Ghag as he drove at an outgoing delivery, playing away from thebody, giving a regulation catch for wicket-keeper Sarabjit Singh.Yuvraj’s knock of 67 runs came in 121 balls, with nine hits to fenceand a mighty six during his stay of 156 minutes at the crease. Thepair added 127 valuable runs for the fourth wicket partnership. DineshMongia (11) came in at the fall of Yuvraj’s wicket and stayed for 54minutes at the crease but made the same mistake as Yuvraj just twominutes after tea. Javed brought about the dismissal, with thescoreboard reading 196 for five. Reetinder Singh Sodhi then stepped tojoin Dharmani, who was holding the fort from one end.Dharmani played elegant stokes to all parts of the ground, completinghis century in style as he cut a short ball from Pandey to the pointboundary. He was finally sent back to the pavilion by a classy incutter from Pandey, which took a thick edge for the keeper to hold.Dharmani’s knock was studded with 18 sweetly timed boundaries.Sandeep Sawal played a quick cameo of 17 runs off 16 balls, but thenbecame the fourth scalp of Ghag. Sodhi, in the company of tail-enderGagandeep Singh, put on 41 valuable runs. He missed his half-centuryby two runs, caught and bowled by Ghag while trying to pull a shortball and mistiming it; his knock came off 74 balls with nine fours.Gagandeep Singh (19) was the last wicket to fall in the day. Javedtook three wickets for 61 runs. At stumps, Punjab had scored 300/9,with Vineet Sharma batting on eight and Babloo Kumar yet to open hisaccount.Shafiq Khan stars for HaryanaShafiq Khan hit a fine 86, and his participation in a 71-run fifthwicket partnership enabled Haryana to score 282 for eight againstDelhi on the opening day of their North Zone Ranji Trophy league matchagainst Delhi.Delhi skipper Mithun Manhas’ decision to field after winning the tossdid not yield the desired results as Haryana openers Padamjit Sehrawatand Chetan Sharma gave their side a sound start, putting up 54 runsfor the first wicket. However, the visitors lost three wickets inspace of 22 runs. Shehrawat scored 47 before being trapped legbeforeby Amit Bhandari; Sharma, the first batsman to go, contributed 20.Skipper Parinder Sharma could score only eight, caught by Akash Chopraoff Bhandari.At lunch, Haryana were 105/3 off 29 overs; between lunch and tea, theyscored only 79 runs, losing one more wicket. The post-tea session sawthe visitors add 98 runs to their total, losing four more wickets. A42-run fourth-wicket stand between Ishan Ganda (26) and Shafiq Khanestablished Haryana’s innings; after the departure of Ganda, AjayRatra gave able support to Shafiq and both batsmen built up theinnings by adding 71 runs for the fifth wicket.The stand was finally broken by off-spinner Sarandeep Singh, who hadRatra (31) caught by Sohail Rauf. Haryana’s score at that stage was192 for five; they added 90 more runs for the loss of three wicketsbefore stumps. Shafiq was the last batsman to be dismissed, sent backleg-before by Abhishek Sharma. His 86 was studded with two sixes andeight fours, and he batted 241 minutes, facing 181 balls in theprocess.At stumps, Sumit Narwal ( 25) and Gaurav Vashist (0) were at thecrease. Bhandari and Sarandeep had picked up two wickets each.Himachal bundled out for 145 on Day OneJammu and Kashmir took advantage of Himachal Pradesh’s recklessbatting to bowl their rivals out for 145 in 75.1 overs on the firstday of their North Zone Ranji league match at Mandi.Ashwani Gupta and Jagtar Singh led the tourists’ assault, claimingfour and three wickets, while Surinder Singh and Vijay Sharma pickedup two and one wicket respectively.Earlier in the day, Himachal Pradesh won the toss and elected to bat.The hosts took the first blow in the 10th over when Nischal Gaur wascaught behind by Vikrant Taggar of Surinder Singh. Barring RajeevNayyar, who remained unbeaten on 41, all the Himachal batsmen giftedaway their wickets, negating the advantage of winning the toss andbatting first on a good wicket.At the end of the day, Jammu and Kashmir were at 22 for one in 15overs.
