Punjab in commanding position

Ludhiana: A rich haul of five for 28 by feft arm spinner Navdeep Singh enabled Punjab to dismiss Jammu & Kashmir for 171 in their first innings on the opening day of the four day Ranji Trophy match at the Punjab Agriculture University ground here on Sunday.

When play was called off Punjab were in commanding position having scored 97 for the loss of two wickets. Skipper Vikram Rathore was batting on 43 with the help of a six and four boundaries and Pankaj Dharmani on 47 which included ten hits to the fence. Punjab lost the wickets of Reetinder Sodhi (0) at four and Ravneet Ricky (5) when the score board read 24. Both these wickets were claimed by Pradeep Bali for 30 runs.

Winning the toss, J & K started on a disastrous note losing opener Rajesh Gill who was caught at short cover by Ravneet Ricky off Reetinder Sodhi for one. Three more wickets with the addition of two runs added to the agony of J & K. skipper Kanvaljit Singh scored 47 and Ashwani Gupta contributed 40.

Three J & K batsmen - Shashi Kumar, Dhruv Mahajan and Pradeep Bali - failed to open their account while last man Surinder Sharma remained not out on zero.

Besides Navdeep Singh, the other successful bowler was Harbhajan Singh (3 for 63)