Vishwas Bhalla hits double century in Punjab's innings win

Punjab overwhelmed Haryana by an innings and 152 runs on Thursday in the Vijay Merchant Trophy (under-16) North Zone league match at the Maharaja Stadium, Rohtak. Punjab captain Vishwas Bhalla led from the front and put the match beyond Haryana with a swashbuckling innings of 250 as Punjab amassed 526/7 declared in their first innings.

Winning the toss on Tuesday, Punjab elected to have a bat first and had a bad start losing the first wicket in the second over in the form of Varun Gupta for a duck. That brought Bhalla to the middle and he took the bowlers by the scruff of their neck and blasted a double century by the end of the day. He was involved in a 89-run partnership with Tavish Gupta (35) for the second wicket. R Arora made an explosive 91 in 122 balls which included nine fours and two sixes and helped Bhalla put on 161 for the third wicket. Bhalla's hundred came in 153 balls including 13 fours. He went on to add 84 runs for the fourth wicket with Gaurav Gupta (42 in 43 balls, 8 fours). At the end of the first day, Punjab were 451/5 with Bhalla on an imposing 204 not out. On Wednesday, the Punjab score kept bulging as Bhalla went on to make 250 before being dismissed. Bhalla's heroics took him 398 minutes at the crease as he faced 290 balls and smashing the ball to the fence 37 times and hitting the ball over the fence twice. At the fall of his wicket, Bhalla declared the innings closed at 526/7 in 106.2 overs. It was a bowling performance that the Haryana boys would like to forget in a hurry.

Haryana started their batting with much hope but Punjab bowlers were just too good for them. They collapsed like a house of cards and came to an end at a pathetic 117 all out in 33.1 overs. On a day when the Punjab bowlers excelled, Ankur was the best of them with the figures of 9.1-4-14-3. For Haryana, wicketkeeper Sunil tried to put up some resistance with a bold 37 in 43 balls. With a huge lead of 409 runs, Punjab asked Haryana to follow on. Haryana got their act together in the second issue and started with an opening stand of 180. Openers Puneet Gupta and Kailash Shah were keen on putting up a fight, which they did. Gupta made 71 hitting 16 fours and Shah made 95, also smashing 16 fours. Once the openers got out, Haryana lost their way completely. As a matter of fact, all Haryana wickets fell for just 73 runs. Tarun Kanish and Gaurav Gupta collected three wickets apiece as Ankur Jand and Gursharan picked two wickets each. Punjab took home all eight points on offer with their win and Haryana got none.