Haryana staring defeat in the face

Saurashtra all but wrapped up their Super League tie against Haryana at Rohtak at the end of the third day today. The home team just about managed to avoid an innings defeat, being 25 runs ahead with a lone second innings wicket standing.

It was a day on which Haryana lost 15 wickets. They never really recovered from the one-two punch that off spinner Hitesh Parsana delivered in his first two overs of the morning to send back overnight batsmen Ajay Ratra and Rajesh Puri with just two runs added to the board. Haryana went rapidly downhill to fold up for 224 as Parsana (6/68) and part time spinner Sitanshu Kotak (3/14) cleaned up the tail.

Following on 181 runs behind, Haryana continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. Rajesh Puri mounted a lone rearguard action and was undefeated on 77 (155 balls, 11 fours, 1 six). This time the wrecker in chief was off spinner Firoz Bambhaniya who scalped 4/39. Stumps were drawn at the fall of the 9th wicket (Feroze Ghyas) with the score on 206.