Ranji one-dayers kick off in North Zone

There were wins for Delhi, Punjab and Haryana in the first round of the Ranji one-day North Zone league matches played on Wednesday. Delhi beat Services by four wickets at Gurgaon, Punjab beat Himachal Pradesh by 28 runs at Faridabad, and Haryana got the better of Jammu & Kashmir by four wickets at Rohtak.

It was once again the young left-handed batsman Gautam Gambhir who made the difference with a brilliant unbeaten century in Delhi's four-wicket win over Services. Chasing a modest Services score of 224, Delhi were in some trouble losing both their openers to Sudhakar Ghag (3/27) with just 33 runs on the board. Gambhir, batting at number three, then put together a valuable 99 runs partnership for the third wicket with Mithun Manhas (38).

Delhi lost three quick wickets to left-arm spinner Arun Sharma (3/54) to slump to 170/5. But then Gambhir batted well with Rajiv Rathore (15) and Sarandeep Singh (13) to take Delhi to victory. Gambhir remained unbeaten on 118 (135 balls, 11 fours).

Earlier in the day, Services elected to bat and with some good contributions from Sarabjit Singh (43), Jasvir Singh (62) and Yashpal Singh (40) were 204/3 in the 45th over. An inspired second spell from medium-pacers Sanjay Gill (4/35) and Amit Bhandari (3/37) saw Services lose their next seven wickets for just 21 runs to be bowled out for 224 in 49.5 overs.

Punjab beat Himachal Pradesh by 28 runs at Faridabad thanks largely to the bowling exploits of Dinesh Mongia (3/37) and Navdeep Singh (3/42). Chasing a target of 257, Himachal were cruising along at 158/2 in 35 overs. Dinesh Mongia then got rid of Sandeep Sharma (77) - caught and bowled - and that was to spell trouble for Himachal as they lost the remaining eight wickets for the addition of 70 runs to be bowled out for 228.

Earlier Punjab had elected to bat and Sandeep Sharma (3/35) had them in all sorts of trouble, claiming the wickets of Mongia (17) and Yuvraj Singh (7) in his first spell. Pankaj Dharmani (43) and Reetinder Singh Sodhi then added a quick fire 87-runs partnership for the fourth wicket. Sodhi (103* off 120 balls) struck nine boundaries and one six in his innings, and batted well with the tail to take Punjab to a respectable 256/7 in their allotted 50 overs.

Haryana were made to sweat for their four-wicket win over Jammu & Kashmir by some disciplined bowling from the latter, spearheaded by Surendra Singh (3/37). It was a resilient effort by Jitender Singh (63 off 93 balls) that made all the difference in the low-scoring game. Chasing a modest score of 174, apart from Jitender Singh and Shafiq Khan (46 off 71 balls), no other Haryana batsman was able to make an impression.

Haryana's victory was set up by their bowlers, who struck at regular intervals after Jammu & Kashmir had elected to bat first. Dhruv Mahajan (32) and Ashwani Gupta (48) were the only batsmen to make any score of substance as others failed to get going. Opening bowler Joginder Sharma returned figures of 9-1-38-3.