Ludhiana eves win against Bathinda, enter semifinals

Thanks to a valuable contribution with bat by Divya Rajput and an equally useful bowling performance by pacer Moli Gosal, Ludhiana stitched up a comfortable 74-run victory over Bathinda in the quarterfinal match of the ongoing Punjab State Inter-District Women U-19 One Day Limited Overs Cricket Tournament, being organised by the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA). The match was played at the PCA ground, New Chandigarh, on Saturday.

Batting first, Ludhiana reached a defendable total of 305 runs after losing three wickets. The highlight of their innings was a resolute batting by Divya Rajput, who scored 129 runs off 95 balls with the help of 15 hits over the ropes and three sixes. Other notable contributors were Parineeta Saroha (54), Chinmey Jain (51*) and Manya Verma, who made 50 runs.

Bathinda began its reply on a positive note with the scoreboard reading 185 for 1 after 37 overs. However, despite fine batting by Alice Pal (106) and Rujula Chhabra (68), they failed to make the required runs and their innings folded at 231 runs.

For the winning side, Moli Gosal captured four wickets for 43 runs, Chinmey Jain accounted for two wickets for 46 runs while Shubhpreet Kaur and Parineeta Saroha scalped one wicket each.

Ludhiana boys lose

to Patiala

Meanwhile, in the Punjab State Inter-District U-19 One Day Limited Overs Cricket Tournament for Boys, in the first league match, played at Mansa on Saturday, Patiala beat Ludhiana by eight wickets.

Ludhiana made 226 runs in 47.4 overs, in which the main scorers were Ishmeet Singh Gahir, Hemant Verma, Shabd Tangri and Sargunveer Singh, who scored 60, 55, 43 and 31 runs, respectively.

For Patiala, Vinit Kumar, Aryan Yadav and Sagar Virk took three wickets each while Bhagat Singh Kaleka got one wicket.

Patiala successfully chased the target in 41.4 overs after losing only two wickets. Aryan Yadav remained unbeaten at 101 while Sagar Virk chipped in with 86 runs and Gurnoor Singh made 34 runs to help their side surpass Ludhiana’s total.