Sodhi's ton places Punjab in command

Ludhiana: Reetinder Sodhi's unbeaten century put Punjab in a commanding position as they scored 276 for two at the draw of stumps against Delhi on the first day of their fourth league match of this season's Ranji Trophy four day match at the Punjab Agriculture University ground here today.

Punjab skipper Vikram Rathour again proved lucky with the coin and rightfully opted to bat first on a hard and dry wicket. Rathour and Reetinder Sodhi opened the innings. Rathour enjoyed an early life as he was dropped from the second ball of the innings at fine leg by Robin Singh junior off Ashish Nehra. Rathour then played his natural game and hit 8 boundaries and two huge sixes during his knock of 75 runs which came off 129 balls. The duo added 128 runs for the opening wicket off 243 balls. Rathour was caught at deep mid wicket by Mithun Manhas as he mistimed a pull off Harinder Chaudhary.

Yuvraj Singh who came in at the fall of Rathour's wicket was dismissed by Ashish Nehra's devastating yorker before opening his account. Pankaj Dharmani (77*) who joined Sodhi (104*) was in trouble as he was dropped twice by Ajay Sharma and Akash Malhotra at 13 and 17. The bowler to suffer on both the occasions was Sandeep Angurala.

Reetinder Sodhi who was playing with a cool head at the other end motivated Dharmani and they consolidated the innings by taking singles and twos. Sodhi completed his second century in style as he made an extra cover drive off Harinder Chaudhary. He stayed at the wicket for the whole day and faced 260 balls, almost half of the balls bowled today. His knock contained eleven sweetly timed boundaries. This was his 21st innings of the 16th Ranji match. His first century was also against Delhi which was an unbeaten double hundred in 1997-98.

Dharmani played a gallant knock after his two lives as he struck ten boundaries and a six after facing 149 balls. This season he has already scored 654 runs and has been dismissed only once. He and Sodhi have so far added 147 runs for the unfinished third wicket partnership. Except Ashish Nehra, no other Delhi bowler was impressive.