Jammu face steep victory target

Quickfire knocks from Manish Sharma and Yuvraj Singh enabled Punjab to declare towards the end of Day Three of their Ranji Trophy league match against Jammu and Kashmir at Jammu.

The home side, resuming on 216/7, proceeded to add 67 runs for the loss of the last three wickets. The runs, for an astonishingly large part, were contributed by overnight unbeaten batsman Ashwani Gupta. Gupta added 55 runs to his overnight score of 45 to remain unbeaten on exactly 100 when the innings finally folded.

Punjab brushed off the early loss of Ravneet Ricky to put up a 141-run second-wicket partnership. Manish Sharma (90 off 113 balls) and Yuvraj (87 off 72 balls), however, fell in rapid succession. Only an unbeaten 26 from Gagandeep Singh lower down the order enabled them to declare at a score of 299/9.

Jammu and Kashmir, having just begun their innings, played only two balls before play was called off for the day.