Good work by MP bowlers on second day

Haryana were bowled out for 463 in 154.2 overs, shortly before the tea interval on the second day of the Cooch Behar Trophy final against Madhya Pradesh at the Deccan Gymkhana grounds, Pune on Thursday. In reply, MP weathered the fall of two early wickets to end the day at 86 for two.

Haryana resumed on a healthy overnight score of 316 for three. The middle order batsmen failed to capitalise on it and the remaining seven wickets fell for the addition of 147 runs. Skipper Ajay Ratra was the first to be dismissed. He was adjudged leg before wicket giving Omprakash Yadav his first wicket of the day. Ratra could add only one run to his overnight score and fell to the last ball of the first over.

Sumeet Sharma (71) soon followed and was in the pavilion, adding seven runs to his overnight score. The fall of both the overnight batsmen triggered a collapse in the middle order. Haryana lost five wickets in the first session of the day and went to lunch on 387 for eight off 125 overs. The post lunch session saw a revival in the batting thanks to Amit Mishra and Gaurav Vasishta. Mishra and Vasishta added 49 runs for the ninth wicket off 22 overs. Their stay at the wicket ensured that Haryana passed the 400-run mark. The partnership ended one short of the fifty mark when Mishra edged an outswinger from OP Yadav to stumper Naman Ojha. Amit Mishra scored 31 off 87 balls with four hits to the fence.

Nitin Agarwal joined Vasishta at the fall of this wicket and the duo added 50 runs for the last wicket off 16.4 overs. Gaurav Vasishta played a fighting knock scoring 56 off 113 balls, hitting six of them to the fence. He was dismissed shortly before the tea interval. Nitin Agarwal was unbeaten on 15 off 52 deliveries. OP Yadav picked up three wickets for 127 runs, Maninder Singh and Jitendar Likhar each bagged two wickets each for 93 and 74 runs respectively.

MP were happy to have restricted Haryana to less than 500 runs but their joy was short lived. They lost Sachin Dholpure in the second over. Dholpure flicked a delivery off his pads and called for the second run but was caught short of his ground by an excellent throw from the fine leg boundary by Joginder Sharma. The sad tale for MP continued when Nitin Agarwal penetrated the defences of Naman Ojha castling him on 15. The tenth over saw both openers in the pavilion with 35 runs on the board. One drop Mohnish Mishra (31 batting) and Jatin Saxena (20 batting) prevented any further damage. They added 50 runs for the unbroken third wicket off 16.2 overs.