Manish Sharma stars in Punjab's triumphant march

India under-19 player Manish Sharma scored a belligerent 74 to enable Punjab Cricket Club outclass Central Revenue Sports Board by 92 runs in the inaugural match of the seventh J.P. Atray Memorial Cricket tournament at the PCA stadium in Mohali today.

Manish Sharma © CricInfo Ltd

The CRSB XI skipper Rakesh Jolly won the toss and opted to field. Punjab Club opened through the seasoned Vikram Rathour and Ravneet Ricky. With the score on 27, Rathore departed for an individual contribution of 19 runs. Soon after, Ravneet Ricky pushed the ball to mid on and ran for a quick single. His partner Manish Sharma did not respond and both of them were stranded at the same end.

Dinesh Mongia joined Manish Sharma and both of them were involved in a partnership of 107 runs. Whereas Manish played the sheet anchor role, it was Mongia who stole the limelight. His 50 came off just 43 balls which included 5 hits to the fence. Manish was the fourth batsman to be dismissed at the team score of 174 runs with his own contribution being 74 runs off 103 balls (8 x 4, 1 x 6).

The hero of the latter part of the innings was Harminder Jugnu who scored a hurricane 57 runs off just 35 balls with the help of 6 boundaries and 2 huge sixes. The defending champion in the tournament, Punjab Cricket Club finished with a healthy total of 259/9 in the allotted 50 overs. Madan Lal was the pick of the CRSB XI attack, claiming three vital wickets.

The CRSB team had to achieve the target in 49 overs due to a slow over rate. The team suffered early shocks as Padamjeet Sehrawat, skipper Rakesh Jolly and Bhupinder Singh junior were back in the pavilion with only 24 runs on the board. Atul Ranade looked impressive in his brief knock of 19 runs. However he was caught by Amit Uniyal off Sanjay Mahajan in an attempt to clear the infield.

Bhupinder Singh senior too did not last long but at the other end Satrajit Lahiri carried on undaunted, reaching his 50 off 78 balls. Only Devinder Dahiya (34) gave him some support and the tail did not contribute much as CRSB XI managed only 167 runs for the loss of eight wickets in the stipulated overs. Lahiri remained unbeaten with 71 off 122 balls, including five hits to the fence. Left arm spinner Navdeep Singh bowled an excellent line and length to claim 2/21 in his spell of 10 overs. Earlier Vineeta Rai, Advisor to the Administrator, Chandigarh inaugurated the tournament.