Off-spinner Gurkeerat Singh Mann (in pic) registered his career best bowling figures as Punjab defeated a sorry-looking Andhra by seven wickets on the second day of a Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match on Saturday.
After the fall of 17 wickets on the opening day, it was no different today as well as 16 more tumbled on a rank turner at Dhruve Pandove stadium.
Resuming their first innings at 127 for seven in reply to Andhra 80 all out, Punjab added 20 more runs to finish on 147 to take a first innings lead of 67 runs.
But the first innings lead hardly mattered as Punjab rode on Gurkeerat's innings-best five for 38 to bundle out Andhra for a meagre 133 in their second innings, thereby setting a paltry target of 67 runs to chase for an outright win with more than two days play remaining in the match.
Gurkeerat finished with career-best match figures of nine for 52, which includes his first innings bowling figures of four for 14.
Gurkeerat was ably supported by pacer Rajwinder Singh (3/33) who picked up three wickets in the second innings, while Sarabjit ladda (2/40) accounted for two.
The 67-run target was a mere formality for Punjab to complete which they achieved in 19.3 overs but not without losing three top-order batsmen. By virtue of this win, Punjab pocketed six points from the match while Andhra returned empty-handed.
Brief Scores
Punjab: 147 & 67/3 in 19.3 overs (Mandeep Singh 22 not out; Hanumappa Shivraj 1/10) lose toAndhra: 80 & 133 in 41.4 overs (KS Bharat 39; Gurkeerat Singh 5/38).
Points: Punjab 6, Andhra 0.
Railways in deep trouble
New Delhi: Railways were in a spot of bother at 129 for seven in their first innings in reply to Tamil Nadu's 328 at the close of play on the second day of a Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match.
Opener V Cheluvaraj was a fighting a lonely battle at 63 not out while Arindam Ghosh (48) gave him good support at the middle as the duo shared 104 runs for the fourth wicket.
Saurabh Wakaskar (11) was the only other Railway batsman to have reached double digit score. Pace duo of A Aswin Crist (4/42) and J Kousik (3/7) wrecked the Railways innings with their incisive bowling.
Brief Scores
TN: 328 in 111.2 overs (Baba Indrajith 151; Anureet Singh 5/104) leadRailways: 129/7 in 59 overs (V Cheluvaraj 63 not out; A Aswin Crist 4/42) by 200 runs.
Elsewhere
MP: 269 lead Baroda: 188/4 by 81 runs; UP: 273 & 163/7 lead Gujarat: 100 by 336 runs; Bengal: 329 lead Haryana: 186/8 by 143 runs; Tripura: 285 lead HP: 259/3 by 26 runs; J&K: 460 lead Hyderabad: 113/2 by 347 runs; Goa: 141/2 vs Jharkhand; Delhi: 245/7 vs Odisha; Karanataka: 281 lead Rajasthan: 219/7 by 62 runs; Services: 254 vs Saurashtra: 264; Vidarbha: 332 lead Maha: 144/6 by 188 runs.