Punjab colts win U-23 title

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 14 

A 141-run stand between Sanvir Singh and Ramandeep Singh helped Punjab register a four- wicket win over Bengal to win the Men’s Cricket U-23 One-day tournament in Kanpur.

Batting first, Bengal scored 265/5 in their allotted 50 overs. Bengal lost Sourav Paul (0), Kazi Junaid Saifi (5), Suvankar Bal (4) and Agniv Pan (12) soon and the team was struggling at 54/4. However, a 201-run stand between AR Eswaran and skipper Saurabh Singh helped Bengal post a decent total. Saurabh (83) was cleaned up by Jagjit Singh but Eswaran remained unbeaten on 142 runs off 137 balls, studded with 13 boundaries and three sixes.  

For Punjab, Arshdeep Singh, Jagjit, Sanvir Singh and Nikhil Chaudhary claimed one wicket each.

In reply, Punjab too had a shaky start with openers Abhijeet Garg (10) and Navneet Virk (3) back in the hut soon. Sanvir and Ramandeep’s 141-run partnership for the third wicket saved the day for Punjab. Both Sanvir (82 off 90 balls) and Ramandeep (75 off 105 balls) were claimed by Amit Kuila. Abhinav Sharma and skipper A Malhotra added 54 runs for the fifth wicket partnership to take the total to 229. Chaudhary (18) in company of Malhotra added 35 runs for the sixth wicket to take the total to 264 before falling prey to Saurabh Singh. Thereafter, Malhotra (38) and Arpit Pannu (4) scored the winning runs with six balls and four wickets to spare.  Kuila (3/57) was the most successful bowler for Bengal. T Pramanik, Raju Halder and Saurabh Singh took one wicket each. 

Last month, Punjab had won the U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy by defeating nine-time champions Uttar Pradesh in Mumbai.