Punjab too strong for Himachal

Mohali: In a one sided affair, Punjab routed Himachal Pradesh by 178 runs in the season's opening North Zone Ranji Trophy one day league match at the PCA stadium here on Saturday.

Himachal skipper Rajiv Nayyar won the toss and elected to field first. His new ball bowlers Shakti Singh and Parveen Sharma bowled according to plan. Shakti Singh in particular was very accurate. He accounted for Sandeep Sharma (15) who while defending a slower delivery snicked to the wicketkeeper. Test discard Navjot Singh Sidhu (3) was also caught by the 'keeper off the bowling of Parveen Sharma.

After the fall of these two early wickets, Punjab skipper Vikram Rathore in company with Reetinder Sodhi played a sensible innings. This pair added 134 runs for the third wicket. Rathore in particular played elegant strokes as he hit ten boundaries and a huge six in his knock of 88 runs which came off 100 balls. While trying to clear the long off fence, he was caught by Sangram Singh off Ajay Mannu. Reetinder Sodhi also fell soon after when he was caught behind off Mannu while trying to cut a short delivery.

After Sodhi's departure, Pankaj Dharmani took charge of scoring runs at will. He placed the ball in the gaps with ease and hit three boundaries in his knock of 54 runs (61 balls). In the slog overs, Amit Sharma (27) and Yuvraj Singh (17*) took the total to 273 in the 50 overs. Shakti Singh and Ajay Mannu took two wickets each giving away 41 and 48 runs respectively.

Chasing a stiff target, Himachal started off well as Rahul Panta hit three consecutive boundries off Sandeep Sharma in the first over of the innings. But Reetinder Sodhi bowled an excellent line and length from the other end and struck two early blows. He accounted for Panta (12) and Nischal Gaur (5). Both were caught at slip by Rathore. After this there was a steady procession and only Ajay Mannu (16), Ajay Rai (15) and Sangram Singh (14) managed to reach double figures. Spinners Yuvraj and Sarandeep Singh bowled well to claim three wickets each to bundle out Himachal for just 95 runs with 13.4 overs to spare.