Openers Prabhsimran Singh and Naman Dhir struck sparkling centuries to give Punjab the upper hand on the second day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match against Saurashtra here today.
Resuming the day at 3/0 in reply to Saurashtra’s first-innings total of 303 all out, Punjab were 327/5 from 91 overs at the close of play for a lead of 24 runs as Prabhsimran and Dhir scored 126 and 131 runs, respectively.
Prabhsimran faced 158 balls and struck 13 fours and three sixes, while Dhir hit nine fours and seven sixes in his 180-ball knock.
Prabhsimran was the first to depart in the post-lunch session but Dhir stayed a little longer and was the third Punjab batsman to get out.
Pukhraj Mann (1), Anmolpreet Singh (9) and Nehal Wadhera (4) did not contribute much but captain Mandeep Singh and wicketkeeper Anmol Malhotra took Punjab past Saurashtra’s first-innings total. When the stumps were drawn, Mandeep was unbeaten on 39 off 120 balls, while Malhotra had scored 16 off 57 deliveries,.
For Saurashtra, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Yuvrajsinh Dodiya took two wickets apiece while Parth Bhut got one wicket.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 303 in 87 overs vs Punjab 327/5 in 91 overs (Prabhsimran 126, Naman 131; Dharmendrasinh 2/82, Yuvrajsinh 2/58); Jharkhand 173 all out vs Bengal 238/5 in 81 overs (Easwaran 77, Gharami 68; Chakraborty 2/68); Andhra 379 all out in 127.1 overs (Bhui 149, Shinde 110; Anubhav 4/72) vs MP 144/4 in 41 overs (Shubham 51); Uttarakhand 116 vs Karnataka 474/5 in 116 overs (Gopal 103*, Agarwal 83; Mishra 3/31).
