Punjab lift U-23 Trophy in style
LUCKNOW: Spirited Punjab lifted the maiden trophy of the Under-23 one-day tournament, scripting a facile four-wicket win against Bengal, at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur on Tuesday. Only last month, Punjab boys had under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy at Mumbai, defeating nine-time champions Uttar Pradesh on the basis of the first innings lead.
Despite losing two wickets for just 31 early in the game on Tuesday while chasing 265, Punjab romped home with six balls to spare, losing six wickets. A 141run third wicket partnership between Sanvir Singh and Ramandeep Singh made all the difference.
Before being caught by Mohd Irfan off Amit Kulia, Sanvir struck 90-ball 82, which contained seven hits to the fence, whereas Ramandeep scored 75 in 105 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six before being caught by Agni Pan also off Amit Kulia. Abhinav Sharma (33, 21b, 3x6) and ARK Malhotra (38*, 29b, 3x4) chipped in with useful runs the last. For Bengal, Amit Kulia took 3/57, whereas T Pramanik, Raju Halder and Saurabh Singh shared three wickets between them.
Things didn’t look easy for Bengal batsmen after being invited to bat first on a green wicket. They lost opener Sourav Puri on duck in the third over, before losing the wicket of Kazi Junaid Saifi (5) in the fifth over and Suvankar Bal (2) in the ninth over. Batsmen poor show didn’t stop here as next man Agniv Pav (12) too departed in the 18th over and Bengal were reduced to 54/4 then. But a young opener Abhimanyu Eswaran on the other end kept stroking the ball nicely. He not only kept the scoreboard ticking with his flawless 137-ball unbeaten 142, which contained 13 hits to the fence and three sixes, but also helped the side posting a challenging total 264/5, adding 201-run for the fifth wicket with Saurabh Singh (83, 100b, 8x4).
Arshdeep Singh, Jagjit Singh, Sanvir Singh and N Chaudhary shared four wickets between them for Punjab.
BRIEF SCORES Bengal 264 for 5 in 50 overs
lost to Punjab 268 for 6 in 49 overs
(AR Eswaran 142*, Saurabh Singh 83)
(Sanvir Singh 82, Ramandeep Singh 75, AR Malhotra 38; Amit Kuila 3/57) by four wickets.