CHANDIGARH : Punjab Under-16 started their North Zone campaign of Vijay Merchant Trophy with a resounding win against their traditional rivals Haryana by an innings 250 runs in their 3 days match played at Gurgaon to garner 7 points including a bonus.
Punjab’s emphatic win was engineered by a hard hitting huge century (187) by their skipper Shubhman Gill off 212 balls studded with 21 glorious boundaries and one huge six. He was assisted by Prince Balwant Rai 86 off 138 balls inclusive of 12 boundaries.
Other notable contributions came from Akash Dahri 60 off 93 balls with 6 boundaries and Nirmal Singh 45 off 116 balls with 4 boundaries.
Earlier Haryana U-16 won the toss and elected to bat. They were however bowled out for 117 in 58.2 overs. Medium pacer Rahul Kashyap 4 for 15, off spinner Akash Dahri 2 for 04 and Shivang Saini 2 for 25 engineering the Haryana rout. T.Bali 39 and R.V. Gour 21 were the only batsmen to show some resistance.
Punjab in reply blasted 454 for 9 before declaring their innings. A.S. Sandhu 7 for 119 was the most successful bowler for Haryana. Trailing by 337 runs on the first innings Haryana fared badly in the 2nd essay being bundled out for 87 in 51.4 overs to sccumb to a huge loss by an innings and 250 runs.
Akash Dahri 3 for 19, Rahul Kashyap 2 for 14 and Resham Sharma 2 for 6 doing most of damage for Punjab while L.R. Dalal with 27 was the highest scorer for Haryana.
Punjab will now take on Delhi from October 15 to 17 at Dhruv Pandove Cricket Stadium in Patiala in their second league match.
Brief scores: Haryana: 117 all out in 51.2 overs (T.Bali 39, R.V. Gaur 21, Rahul Kashyap 4 for 15, off spinner Akash Dahri 2 for 04 and Shivang Saini 2 for 25).
Punjab: 454 for 9 declared (Shubhman Gill 187, Prince Balwant Rai 86, Akash Dahri 60, Nirmal Singh 45, A.S. Sandhu 7 for 119).