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Chasing a target of 252 runs, Punjab started playing ahead of 52 runs across two wickets on the fifth and final day of the match, but their entire team was dismissed for 180 runs.
Partha Bhut’s all-round performance helped Saurashtra beat Punjab by 71 runs to enter the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament where they will face Karnataka. Chasing a target of 252 runs, Punjab started playing ahead of 52 runs across two wickets on the fifth and final day of the match, but their entire team was dismissed for 180 runs. Bhut, who scored 111 in Saurashtra’s first innings and 51 in the second innings, took five wickets for 89 runs. This left-arm spinner took eight wickets in the match in this manner.
He took three wickets for 114 runs in Punjab’s first innings. The pitch was helping the spinners and thus Saurashtra captain Arpit Vasavada used only three spinners in the second innings. Apart from Bhut, left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja took three for 56 while spinner Yuvrajsinh Dodiya took two for 35. Punjab started playing ahead of 52 runs by two wickets in the morning. He was then within 200 runs of the target.
However, the Punjab batsmen found it difficult to play with the spinners due to the twist of the pitch. Punjab lost wickets at regular intervals. Bhut gave Saurashtra its first breakthrough in the morning by sacking night watchman Siddharth Kaul (10). Dodiya sacked yesterday’s unbeaten second batsman, Pukhraj Mann (42), lbw. Captain Mandeep Singh played out a 45-run innings, but this could only reduce the margin of defeat. Mandeep gave Punjab hope by adding 49 runs for the sixth wicket with Anmolpreet Singh (26), but both returned to the pavilion within four runs to cut the score to 160 for seven wickets. After this Saurashtra took no time to see off the tail batsmen.
Disclaimer:Prabhasakshi has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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