da 888casino： A fine half century by Reetinder Sodhi (51 not out) enabled PunjabCricket Club defeat Bishnoi Cricket Club by three wickets and enterthe final of the 7th J.P.Atray Memorial Cricket Tournament at the PCAstadium in Mohali today
Rakesh Sanghi29-Sep-2000A fine half century by Reetinder Sodhi (51 not out) enabled PunjabCricket Club defeat Bishnoi Cricket Club by three wickets and enterthe final of the 7th J.P.Atray Memorial Cricket Tournament at the PCAstadium in Mohali today.Electing to bat first, Bishnoi Cricket Club could muster only 173 runsand were bowled out in 40 overs. In reply the Punjab Cricket Clubscored the required runs convicingly in the 33rd over for the loss ofseven wickets.Karnataka batsman J.Arun Kumar and Bengal all rounder Laxmi RatanShukla opened for the Bishnoi Cricket Club in the face of a hostilespell of bowling by Gagandeep Singh and Reetinder Sodhi. Arun Kumarwas caught behind while newcomer Nikhil Haldipur played on to hisstumps without opening his account to leave Bishnoi two wickets downfor just 11 on the board.National Cricket Academy prodigy SS Das played some elegant shots toscore his 50 off just 57 balls. He and Shukla took the team out of thewoods with a third wicket partnership of 80 runs. Das who was shapingup well was caught behind off the bowling of Navdeep Singh for 53 (66balls, 8 x 4). Shukla too departed soon for an individual contributionof 39 off 46 balls. All hopes now rested upon Gautam Gambhir but afterstarting off well he was caught by wicketkeeper Harminder Jugnu for 26runs off 38 balls.Skipper MS Arora and D Dasgupta repaired the damage to some extent andthe 150 of the innings was posted at the second drinks break. AfterArora (16 off 27 balls) was sixth out at 172 there was virtually aprocession as wickets fell like ninepins. With the addition of justone run, four more wickets fell and the entire Bishnoi team folded upfor merely 173 runs. Test discard Harbhajan Singh was the mostsuccessful bowler of the Punjab Club as he claimed three wickets for18 runs.Ravneet Ricky (17) and Vikram Rathour (34) who opened for Punjab Clubstarted off confidently as they put on 55 runs in no time. The BishnoiClub medium pacers struck a double blow as Nikhil Haldipur held twosuperb catches in the gully region to remove both the openers at thesame score. Dinesh Mongia who had struck a century in the earliermatch started off from where he left. Middling the ball well, hestruck two exquisite boundaries off Shukla. However, India under-19player Manish Sharma lost his cool and was caught in the slips offShukla for two. Mongia also followed at the same score of 83 for 17runs with three boundaries.RS Sodhi and H Jagnu then added 44 runs before Jagnu fell to TejinderSingh. With an addition of just one run on the board, Sharandeep Singhfell to Ashish Nehra caught and bowled. Punjab Club at this point wasprecariously placed at 128 for 6. Sodhi who kept his nerves undercontrol took his team through to victory with three wickets to spare,scoring an unblemished half century in 53 balls studded with sevenboundaries and a six.Test player Ashish Nehra bowled his heart out with a spell of 3 for 43in his 10 overs. Tejinder Singh and Laxmi Rattan Shukla also took twowickets each at the cost of 41 and 49 runs respectively. ReetinderSodhi was named the Man of the Match for his all round performance