NAGPUR, Jan 18: The Punjab colts have finally managed to get the one feather which irritatingly eluded their cap till now. A first innings lead of 77 runs against Haryana made this possible as a spirited Punjab lifted the U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy.Punjab, who could not even make it to the knock-out stage last year, have won the title for the first time in the tournament's history.
Only 26 runs away from Haryana's first innings total of 239 yesterday, they batted sensibly on their way to the much desired goal. Punjab were all out at 316 runs 35 minutes before lunch.
After taking the winning lead, Punjab tried seven bowlers as Haryana's second innings was only of academic importance.
Haryana were 245 for five wickets, when umpires called off play after the mandatory nine overs.
Brief Scores: Haryana 239 & 245-5 ((Bhuvanesh Sharma 37, Ajay Ratra 72 n.o, Deepak Joon 50 n.o) drew with Punjab 316 (SP Singh 38, Gaganinder Singh 68, Yuvraj Singh 53, Hari Kishan 36, Devinder Chandan Madan 51; Ishan
Ganda 4-78).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
