MOHALI: A hapless
Punjab were reduced to 75 runs for 9 wickets at stumps in the first innings of their
Ranji Trophy tie against
Himachal Pradesh
on Friday. Playing at the
IS Bindra PCA Stadium
, the home team was trailing by 315 runs by the end of Day 2 of the match.
The best partnership for Punjab was the last-wicket, unbeaten, 18-run stand between Shubek Gill and Raghu Sharma. The duo will continue the batting on Saturday.
This pretty much summed up the story for Punjab.
Mayank Dagar was the showstopper for Himachal Pradesh. The all-rounder worked with tail-enders and scored a fine 71 runs off 144 balls, with the help of nine fours.
The last three wickets put on 89 runs for the visitors.
Dagar was just as dangerous with the ball. He bagged four wickets for 22 runs in 12 overs.
Earlier, Dagar groped, guessed and scrapped through the first 16 deliveries of his innings. He faced a barrage of bouncers from Punjab pacer Sandeep Sharma. One delivery flew past Dagar's shoulder and brought him down to his knees.
From a distance, he looked beaten. But he held his ground and followed this up with a pull into the mid-wicket fence for a boundary. There was no looking back after this as Dagar started playing textbook shots.
Yuvraj Singh dropped him at the first slip on 65, but the damage had been done by then.
Batting with the tail of Himachal's line-up, Dagar stole the strike easily and chose the right balls to attack, keeping his nerves not to get carried away.
Punjab too helped, letting him take singles off the final ball of most overs without much resistance. At times, when Dagar was on strike for the last two balls of an over, fielders did not come in close to prevent him from taking the single for keeping the strike.
Earlier, Himachal were bowled out for 390 runs in 145.1 overs. Overnight batsman Ankit Kalsi scored 82 off 152 balls.
For Punjab, pacer Sandeep Sharma (5/101), Raghu Sharma (2/64) and Sanvir Singh (2/58) contributed with the ball.
In reply, Punjab had a nightmarish start as they lost opener Abhijeet Garg for a duck off Dagar's bowling in the fourth over. Nikhil Gangta took a low catch at the second slip.
Himachal dominated the post-tea session, as Dagar and rookie pacer Arpit Guleria struck soon after resumption of play. Skipper Mandeep was dismissed for a naught, when he was trapped in front of the wicket by Guleria. Two overs later, Yuvraj Singh (4) was run out. When Jiwanjot Singh hit a straight drive, the ball struck Guleria's hand and deflected on to the stumps at the non-striker's end.
Thereafter, Punjab's wickets fell like a pack of cards.
Brief Scores:Himachal Pradesh 1st innings: 390 all out in 145.1 overs (Ankit Kalsi 82, Mayank Dagar 71, Rishi Dhawan 61; Sandeep Sharma 5/101, Sanvir Singh 2/58, Raghu Sharma 2/64)
Punjab 1st innings: 75 for 9 in 30 overs (Vinay Chaudhary 24; Mayank Dagar 4/22, Arpit Guleria 2/16)
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