Punjab in commanding position

Chandigarh: Despite their batting faltering in the first innings, Punjab managed to take the first day's honours against Uttar Pradesh in the under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy semifinal match, being played at Alur in Bengaluru.
The Punjab bowlers bowled superbly to put their side in command against Uttar Pradesh. On a day when 15 wickets fell, Punjab, batting first, were bundled out for 242 in 61.4 overs.
But their bowlers took five wickets to leave the UP side reeling at 61 for 5 in 28 overs at stumps.
Batting first, Punjab started off on the wrong foot as opener Naman Dhir was caught by Abhishek Pandey off Mohit Jangra for just three runs. The team total at that point was 15 for 1.
Thereafter, Prabhsimran and Shubman Gill added 43 runs for the second wicket. Prabhsimran threw away a good start and was clean bowled by Tejaswa Raj. He scored 40 off just 25 balls and his knock was studded with six boundaries and two mighty sixes.
Tejaswa then cleaned up last match centurion Abhishek Sharma for nought, reducing Punjab to 60 for 3.
At this stage, Nehal Wadhera joined in-form batsman Shubman Gill and the duo steadied Punjab's innings by putting on 93 runs for the fourth wicket.
Nehal was cleaned up by Mohit Jangra for 28 off 72 balls. Nehal hit 11 sweetly-timed boundaries and two huge sixes. He was stumped by Abhishek off Tejaswa's bowling. Shubman Gill was the next batsman to go after scoring a sparkling 86 off 101 balls.
Ayush Gautam (24) and Deepin Chitkara (23) were the other notable contributors with the bat for Punjab.
While Tejaswa Raj (5 for 84) picked up a five-wicket haul, Mohit Jangra (4 for 94), and Kartik Tyagi (1 for 26) were the other wicket-takers for UP.
In reply, Uttar Pradesh opened with Aryan Juyal and Parth Jain. Parth was caught by Prabhsimran off medium-pacer Sumit Sharma for one. Prabhnoor Singh added 28 runs for the second wicket with Aryan Juyal. Prabhnoor was caught by Prabhsimran off Sumit Sharma for 12.
Punjab bowlers took three more wickets to leave UP tottering at 61 for 5 in 28 overs at stumps. Abhishek Pandey was caught by Abhishek Sharma off Sumit Sharma for nought, while opener Aryan Juyal, who was batting well, was brilliantly run-out by Rahul for 22.
Left-arm spinner Madhav Pathania trapped Aryan Sethi for one, reducing UP to 43 for 5. When stumps were drwan, Aryan Sharma was batting on nine along with Divyansh Rajput, who was unbeaten on 10. UP are still trailing Punjab by 181 runs.