A century from skipper Yuvraj Singh saw Punjab take the upper hand intheir Ranji Trophy league match against Haryana at Gurgaon
Staff Reporter26-Nov-2001*Yuvraj Singh gives Punjab an upper handA century from skipper Yuvraj Singh saw Punjab take the upper hand intheir Ranji Trophy league match against Haryana at Gurgaon.Haryana, winning the toss, could not take full advantage of it, beingbowled out for 204 in their first innings. Only Jitender Singh came toterms with the wicket and the bowling, making 89 off 244 balls andforming the anchor for Haryana. He finally fell as the last wicket,unable to extend his side’s total due to lack of support.Punjab, in their own batting effort, lost their openers early. YuvrajSingh and Ankur Kakkar put on 140 runs for the fourth wicket, however,stabilising the innings. Yuvraj, making his runs faster, got to hiscentury first and then fell with the score on 191.At the close of play on Day Two, Punjab were 258/7, with Kakkar stillat the crease on 81. For Haryana, Sumit Narwal took 5-69.*Tamil Nadu proceed to take upper handA steady rather than excellent batting display from Tamil Nadu’s toporder saw the home side gain a slight edge over Goa in their RanjiTrophy league match at Chennai on Sunday.Managing to bowl Goa out for 238, Tamil Nadu had a definite upperhand. MR Shrinivas took 5-57, playing a vital role in the collapse ofthe visitors’ batting line-up.Sadagopan Ramesh, opening the Tamil Nadu innings, must have beenhoping to impress the selectors with a sterling display and regain hisposition in the Indian team. He managed, however, to make only 35 off94 deliveries. His partner, Somasetty Suresh, made 65 off 130 balls,top-scoring in his side’s innings.Suresh fell with the score on 114, and Hemang Badani and Hemanth Kumarfell relatively cheaply. S Sharath and skipper Robin Singh thenstabilised the innings, taking Tamil Nadu’s total to 187/4 by theclose of play.*Andhra take the lead on Day TwoDespite a five-wicket haul by Kerala left-arm spinner Mani SureshKumar, Andhra Pradesh took the first-innings lead in their RanjiTrophy league match at Cochin on Sunday.Y Venugopal Rao, coming in at the fall of captain MSK Prasad, added 70runs for the fourth wicket with Illa Srinivas (22). No partnershiplasted quite so long after the fall of Srinivas with the score on 133,although Venugopal Rao plodded along slowly making 76 off 220 balls.Once Venugopal Rao fell with the score on 180, Kerala must havesniffed a chance of bowling their rivals out. The lower order,however, defied the bowlers, with Hemal Watekar (24) and KhatibSahabuddin (27*) taking their side past the 200-run mark.At stumps, Andhra Pradesh were 234/8, with Sahabuddin and MohammedFaiq (6*) at the crease.*Uttar Pradesh wins at KanpurUttar Pradesh notched up a 155-run victory over Vidarbha on Day Fourof their Ranji Trophy league match at Kanpur on Sunday.Powered by a solid middle-order performance, Uttar Pradesh declared ata second-innings total of 329/9. Mohammad Saif and Nikhil Chopra,unbeaten overnight, made 48 and 47 respectively, keeping Pritam Gandhe(4-78) out long enough to propel their side to a sizeable total.Set a target of 293, Vidarbha could not even hold on for a draw, letalone make a significant dash for victory. With Harshal Shitoot’s 28being the top score, Vidarbha’s batting line-up crumbled in the faceof accurate bowling from Uttar Pradesh. The star of the bowling atackwas undoubtedly Mohammad Kaif, who returned stunning figures of10.5-7-4-3.With Vidarbha being bowled out for 137, Uttar Pradesh notched up eightpoints from this victory.*Madhya Pradesh hold on for exciting drawWith only one wicket remaining, Madhya Pradesh batsmen pulled off anexciting draw against Railways in their Ranji Trophy league match atIndore on Sunday.Railways, declaring at 291/7, reached its second-innings total due tosome fine batting from its top three batsmen. Jai P Yadav (92), AmitPagnis (70) and Yere Goud (50) all scored fifties, with Goud remainingunbeaten till the end of the innings. A brief middle-order collapsewas brushed aside as S Raza Ali also contributed lower down the orderwith 40 off 51 balls.Set a target of 514, Madhya Pradesh had no option but to play for adraw. This too looked doubtful as wickets collapsed in a heap at thetop of the order. KS Parida, the first-innings hero, took three morewickets here, but skipper Sulakshan Kulkarni batted bravely (30*) withthe tail to ensure a draw for his side.Railways, by virtue of their first-innings total, pick up five pointsfrom this tie, while Madhya Pradesh pick up three.*Mumbai pull off comprehensive winA second-innings collapse from Maharashtra saw Mumbai pull off aseven-wicket victory in their Ranji Trophy league match at Mumbai onSunday.Reaching a first-innings total of 250 thanks mainly to some late-orderheroics, Mumbai must have felt that they did not have nearly enoughruns in the bank. Iqbal Siddiqui was the most impressive Maharashtrabowler, returning figures of 7-91.Ramesh Powar, however, returned his own impressive figures for Mumbai,taking 6-30 off 19.5 overs. The Maharashtra innings collapseddramatically; with only the openers getting to double figures, theside was dismissed for 98.Set a target of 65 for victory, Mumbai brushed off minor hiccups tonotch up a seven-wicket victory. They now garner eight points fromthis match, their first of the Ranji season.*Gujarat manage tight victoryA six-wicket haul from Lalit Patel saw Gujarat notch up a tight ninerun win over Ranji champions Baroda in their Ranji Trophy league matchat Vadodara on Sunday.Set a total of 237 for victory, Baroda looked to be coasting towardsit during an 80-run stand between Tushar Arothe (47) and Ajit Bhoite(42). The former, in particular, played aggressively, making his runsoff 69 deliveries.Arothe’s fall at 209, as the sixth wicket, triggered off acollapse.The last four wickets fell for only 18 runs, as none of thetailenders could even slog their way to victory. Gujarat, by virtue oftheir outright win, pick up eight points from this match.*Amit Bhandari gives Delhi the edgeFigures of 6-55 saw Amit Bhandari rip through the Jammu & Kashmirline-up to give Delhi the edge in their Ranji Trophy league match atDelhi.Delhi, batting after being put in by the visitors, scored 286 in theirfirst innings. Akash Chopra, opening the innings, top-scored with 71,but the innings total was really boosted by Sarandeep Singh’s inningsof 54 off 62 coming in at No. 11. Vijay Sharma, for Jammu & Kashmir,picked 5-91.The visitors started their innings badly, losing the openers with just13 on the board. Aside from Kavaljit Singh, who made 56 and was theeighth wicket to fall, none of the players looked comfortable againstthe Delhi attack. Bhandari knocked off the top order and then returnedto play an encore against the tail.In their second innings, Delhi were 46/1 at the close of play on DayTwo, with Chopra and Pradeep Chawla at the crease.*Services, Himachal Pradesh battle it out at UnaHimachal Pradesh negated in part the advantage that Services gained byvirtue of their sizeable first-innings total in their Ranji Trophyleague match at Una.Services, winning the toss, made 329 in their first innings, withJasvir Singh top-scoring with 81 off 238 balls. He received goodsupport from Sanjay Verma (73), and their partnership formed the spineof the total. For Himachal Pradesh, Shakti Singh picked four for 67.Himachal Pradesh, responding to Services’ total, lost an opener early.Sandeep Sharma and Rajiv Nayyar put on 101 runs for the second wicketbefore the former fell with the score on 119, having made 80.At the close of play, Himachal Pradesh were 142/2, with Nayyar (50*)and Sangram Singh (3*) at the crease.