Yuvraj ton propels Mohali

MOHALI: After conceding two points to Jalandhar in their opening match of the Punjab State inter-district (under-19) cricket tournament for Dhruv Pandove Trophy, Mohali came back strongly in their second Pool B encounter against Zone A, posting an impressive total of 297 for 7 in 82 overs, at PCA Stadium on Monday.
However, put into bat, Mohali got off to a disastrous start as taking advantage of the early morning conditions, Zone A medium pacer Raj Kamal hit the deck hard and reduced the hosts to 83 for 5 in 28.5 overs.Bowling a probing line, Raj gave little room to the opposition batsmen to free their arms and was rewarded with 4 wickets.
However, just when it looked that Mohali will succumb under pressure, Yuvraj Singh walked in and single handedly changed the complexion of the match. After getting his eyes in, Yuvraj flayed the opposition attack all over the park for his brilliant knock of 136 that came off 183 deliveries. Pacing his innings well, Yuvraj hit 16 sweetly timed boundaries on either side of the wicket. He was associated in a 79-run stand for the sixth wicket with skipper Gunjot singh (29) and later added 89 runs with Harpreet (24 not out) before he was stumped by Manil of the bowling of Sukhdeep. For Zone A, Raj Kamal was the pick of the bowlers returning with figures for 4 for 50 while Sukhdeep chipped in with 2 wickets.
In reply, Zone A had a dismal start, as they lost their opener Gurpreet who was snapped by Gunjot in second slip of the bowling of Lovepreet without opening his account with the scoreboard reading two runs. At draw of stumps, Zone A were 19 for 1 in 11 overs. In a Pool A match, played between Chandigarh and Amritsar at Sector 16 Cricket Stadium, the hosts called correctly and posted an imposing total of 343 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted 95 overs. Chandigarh batsmen took control of the proceedings from the word go, as their openers Shivam Khurana (68, 4x10, 6x2) and Shah Nawaj Mirza (42, 4x5) added 82 runs for the first wicket before Shah Nawaz was stumped of the bowling of Pankaj Chowdhary.
However, the fall of the wicket didn't stop the run flow, as Shivam added 66 runs for the third wicket with sipper Anil Sihag who hit a quickfire 40 (48 balls, 4x8). Thereafter Chandigarh lost two wickets in quick succession giving glimpses of hope to Amritsar bowlers to stage a fightback . But their hope was short lived, as the fall of the wickets brought Ankit Kaushik at the crease who hammered an unbeaten 100 to put Chandigarh in complete command of the match. Anil launched a brutal attack on opposition hitting six boundaries and three towering sixes. He was involved in a fifth wicket stand of 45 runs with Gaurav Puri (22) and then added 70 runs for the eighth wicket with Anshul Tripathi who hit a runa-ball 32. The only bright spot for Amritsar was Pankaj Chowdhary who toiled hard to return with figures of 4 for 111 while Vinay Chowdhary chipped in with 3 wickets. The final day of both matches will resume at 8 am on Tuesday.