Punjab in trouble against Bengal

Bilaspur, October 21 

West Bengal scored 404 before reducing Punjab to 168/4 at stumps on Day Two of their Group A Ranji Trophy encounter. Starting the day at 332/5, overnight batsman Pankaj Shaw, who resumed on 11, went on to complete his half-century to take the team past the 400-run mark. Shaw single-handedly steered the team to a competitive total even as wickets kept falling at the other end. His knock of 55 came off 138 balls and included five fours and a six.

For Punjab, Sandeep Sharma finished with figures of 4/96. Punjab did not have an ideal start as they lost opener Jiwanjot Singh for a duck with no run on the scorecard. Manan Vohra was dismissed for 23. But Uday Kaul steadied the boat with an unbeaten 73 off 141 deliveries with eight hits to the fence. Yuvraj Singh also got a start but failed convert it to a big score, getting out on 22. 

Tripura amass 549 against HP on day 2

Half-centuries by skipper Manisankar Murasingh and Gurinder Singh in the lower order lifted Tripura to 549 against Himachal Pradesh in their Group C match. Murasingh hit three sixes and 10 fours en route his 84 as he and Gurinder (79; 8x4) added 117 runs for the seventh wicket to take Tripura close to 500.    Tripura posted 549 all out in 162.2 overs and, in reply, Himachal Pradesh were 50/1 at stumps on Day 2, trailing by 499 runs, with Ankush Bains (28) and Nikhil Gangta (12) at the crease. — Agencies

Brief scores

• West Bengal: 404 all out (SS Mondal 135, Agniv Pan 70, Pankaj Shaw 55, Sandeep Sharma 4/96); Punjab: 168/4 in 51 overs (Uday Kaul 73*; Amit Kulia 3/44)  
• Tripura: 549 all out in 162.2 overs (Smit Patel 111, Manisankar Murasingh 84, Gurinder Singh 79, Mayank Dagar 5/138) vs HP
• J&K: 334 (S Khajuria 90, P Rasool 45, Bandeep Singh 63, Ram Dayal 42; Siva Kumar 4/49, B Bhatt 4/122); Andhra Pradesh: 72/2 (KS Bharat 31).
• Haryana: 178 and 121/3 (Himanshu Rana 50*, Rohit Sharma 34*; Pankaj Rao 3/29) vs Chhattisgarh: 189 (SS Gupta 78; Joginder Sharma 5/32, Harshal Patel 4/40)