Ludhiana beat Bathinda by 10 wickets, enter semis

Anil Datt

Ludhiana, September 4

Hosts Ludhiana scored a thumping 10-wicket victory against Bathinda to top their pool and assured themselves a berth in semifinals in the ongoing Punjab Cricket Championship for Katoch Shield. The two-day match concluded on Tuesday at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) ground.

In reply to Bathinda’s first innings’ score of 142 runs, Ludhiana resumed at overnight score of 51 for no loss and went on to 281 runs for the loss of five wickets before declaring their innings.

The highlight of Ludhiana’s first essay was a fine century by opener Sunny Pandey who contributed 116 runs inclusive three sixes and nine hits over the fence.

Other notable scorers were Talwinder Singh and Kashish Pasneja who scored 81 and 62 runs, respectively.

Trailing by 139 runs, the visitors began their second innings on a shaky note and eventually could manage 183 runs, leaving hosts Ludhiana to score 45 runs for an outright victory.

Krishan Kumar, who scalped six wickets in the first innings, gave another fine display of bowling, chipping in with five wickets in the second innings to help Ludhiana contain visitors to a small total in their second easy, too.

Ludhiana needed just 6.4 overs to make the required runs and came out triumphant. The opening pair of Sunny Pandey and Talwinder Singh rose to the occasion to help their side achieve the target.

With this victory, Ludhiana topped the pool and will take on Amritsar in the semifinals. The semifinal is slated for September 6 and 7 here at the same venue.

Brief scores

Bathinda (First innings): 142 all out in 55.3 overs (Naman Dhir 29, Venus 28, Kamaljit Singh 15, Arjun Singh 27 and Navkaran Sharma 25; Krishan Kumar 6 for 52, Sukhjinder Singh 3 for 40 and Baltej Singh 1 for 21).

Ludhiana (First innings): 281 for 5 declared after 48.2 overs (Sunny Pandey 116, Talwinder Singh 81, Kashish Pasneja 62 and Sukhjinder Singh 14: Sukhmander Singh 2 for 34 and Taranpreet Singh 2 for 123).

Bathinda (Second innings): 183 all out in 51.5 overs ( Venus 50, Harpreet Singh 16, Kamajit Singh 15, Arjun Singh 37, Navkaran Sharma 20, Sukhdeep Singh 25; Krishan Kumar 5 for 66, Sukhjinder Singh 2 for 44, Kashish Pasneja 2 for 34 and Amrit Singh 1 for 21).

Ludhiana (Second innings): 47 for no loss in 6.4 overs (Sunny Pandey 14 not out and Talwinder Singh 29 not out).

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