Dharmani, Sodhi star's in Punjab's victory

Ludhiana: A rich haul of five for 64 by medium pacer Reetinder Sodhi and a triple century by Pankaj Dharmani enabled Punjab to rout Jammu & Kashmir by an innings and 288 runs on the penultimate day of the four day North Zone Ranji Trophy match at the Punjab Agriculture University ground here on Monday.

Punjab resumed at 452 for six with Dharmani on 214 and Harminder Jugnu on 30 and after adding 168 runs without any further loss declared their innings at 620 for six at the stroke of lunch. Dharmani scored a triple century which is the highest individual score for Punjab in the Ranji Trophy. The earlier record was 298 by Gursharan Singh against Bengal in 1988-89. Dharmani's marathon innings (305*) came from 479 balls during a ten hour stay at the wicket. His chanceless knock consisted of 30 hits to the fence and two mighty sixes.

Jugnu also scored his first century while playing his 13th match. He scored an unbeaten 106 with the help of seven boundaries and two sixes. He faced 120 balls and stayed at the crease for 224 minutes. The pair added an unfinished 231 runs for the seventh wicket.

J & K was under tremendous pressure when they commenced their second innings. Medium pacer Reetinder Sodhi bowled a tight line and length and accounted for five wickets. Navdeep Singh (3 for 47) and Sarandeep Singh (2 for 16) assisted Sodhi as the innings folded up for 37 minutes after tea for 161. Tailender Sanjay Sharma (46*), Pradeep Bali (31) and Dhruv Mahajan (29) put up some resistance.

With this win Punjab took their points tally to 24 from three fixtures while J & K has only three points from an identical number of matches.