Ganda shines for Haryana

Ishan Ganda scored his second consecutive century of the tournament, against Madhya Pradesh in the finals of the Cooch Behar U-19 Trophy at the Deccan Gymkhana grounds on Wednesday. Haryana are well placed on 315 for three off 91 overs on the first day of the four day final.

Earlier in the day, Haryana won the toss and elected to bat. The openers Bhuvanesh Sharma (70) and Manvinder Bisla (35) did not disappoint the skipper. Vindicating the decision to bat first, the pair started brilliantly, scoring 50 runs from just 5.3 overs in 27 minutes. Although the Haryana skipper would have like to see the run fest continue it was not possible on the day.

Bisla was the first man to be dismissed and the opening partnership ended, just three runs short of the three figure mark, on 97 off 19.3 overs. Bhuvanesh Sharma added 65 runs for the second wicket with Ganda off 21.5 overs. Bhuvanesh played 135 balls and hit ten boundaries.

Although the openers had done their bit to help the Haryana cause, the real magic was yet to come. The star of the day was Ishan Ganda who scored his second century of the tournament. Following his knock of 160 in the semifinal against Bengal, Ganda put up yet another impressive show. His 196 ball innings was laced with 15 hits to the fence. Ishan and Sumeet Sharma (64 batting) added 135 runs for the third wicket of 260 balls. Ganda (125) was finally dismissed in the 85th over, trying to cut a short delivery edging it to the keeper. Sumeet Sharma was unbeaten as stumps were called on the first day , Ajay Ratra is with him at the crease.

Jitender Likhar , Ambalal Patidar and Jatin Saxena picked up a wicket each.