Gony, Mandeep Star In Punjab's Second Win; Yuvraj Scores 35*

Brilliant bowling from Manpreet Gony and scintillating batting from Mandeep Singh saw Punjab posting their second consecutive victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018.

India pacer, Manpreet Gony, started bowling out Services’ batsmen right from the very first over and on the second delivery he bowled, he dismissed Ravi Chauhan with just a score of 1. In his very next over, Gony snared Rahul Singh after the batsman top-edged a delivery straight to Baltej Singh, standing at mid-on.

The very same over Gony dismissed Nakul Verma too and brought Services to its knees. In his last over of the first spell, Gony gave another jitter to the opposition team and grabbed his fourth wicket of the game by dismissing Arun Bamal on a duck.

Other bowlers made merry post-Gony’s spell, and in the end, Services could just post a total of 140 on the board.

The target was never going to be difficult for a star-studded Punjab, but they lost an early wicket of Manan Vohra on a score of 14.

Mandeep Singh, meanwhile, continued his blitz and continued to churn out occasional boundaries. Post-Anmolpreet Singh’s dismissal, Yuvraj Singh came to the crease and stayed there until the end of the innings.

He, along with Mandeep, shared a match-winning partnership of 76 runs for the third wicket to win the game by eight wickets.

Yuvraj played a cautious innings of 35 off 35 as Punjab needed someone to play the anchor’s role. On the other hand, Mandeep kept the scoreboard ticking and scored 85* of just 56 deliveries at a strike rate of 150.00.

This was Punjab’s second win in two games, and they have moved a step forward in clinching the North Zone title. Himachal Pradesh also has two wins in two games. Haryana have lost both the games while Delhi have won one game. Services have one win in their account while Jammu and Kashmir have lost their both games.

Brief score: Punjab 141/2 (Mandeep Singh 84*, Yuvraj Singh 35*; Diwesh Pathania 2-17) defeat Services 140/9 (Amit Pachchara 37, Vikas Hathwala 25; Manpreet Gony 4-18) by eight wickets.

Other scores –

Brief scores: Jharkhand 163/6 defeat Tripura 139/9 by 24 runs. 

Brief scores: Baroda 175/7 defeat Gujarat 139/10 by 36 runs.

Brief scores: Chhattisgarh 175/5 defeat Railways 150/8 by 25 runs.

Brief scores: Odisha 128/9 defeat Assam 77/10 by 51 runs. 

Brief scores: Mumbai 130/10 defeat Saurashtra 133/2 by eight wickets.