da realbet： The stage is set for a keen battle for the all important first inningslead in the Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) final
Partab Ramchand17-Dec-1999The stage is set for a keen battle for the all important first inningslead in the Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) final. At stumps on thesecond day of the three day match at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur,Punjab were 108 for one in reply to Bihar’s first innings total of357.Resuming at 254 for five overnight, Bihar did well to add another 103runs. The overnight batsmen, opener Ratan Kumar and MS Dhoni carriedon till the total was 274. The retreiving sixth wicket partnership hadadded 115 runs from 41 overs when Dhoni was caught by Sodhi off Uniyalfor 84. Dhoni batted 2-1/2 hours, faced 137 balls and hit 14 fours andtwo sixes.Vikash Kumar joined Ratan Kumar who proceeded cautiously towards thethree figure mark. But when one short of it, he gave Sanwal a returncatch. It was a sad end to an innings which lasted 473 minutes. Theopener, who was seventh out at 314, had faced 361 balls and hit only12 of them to the ropes. The partnership had put on 40 runs off 16overs.Vikash Kumar, along with the tail kept the score moving until he waslast out for 52. He batted 160 minutes, faced 120 balls and hit sixboundaries. Last man A Yadav, with whom Vikash added 29 runs off 16.3overs batted 55 minutes and faced 53 balls without opening hisaccount. Sanwal sent down 40.3 overs and was rewarded with fourwickets for 115 runs.When Punjab batted, openers Manish Sharma and RS Ricky (33) gave thema sound start putting on 60 runs from 29.2 overs. Ricky, who faced 84balls and hit five fours was bowled by Satendra Mishra. Manish andskipper Yuvraj Singh were batting at stumps with 45 and 26respectively. Manish has so far played 152 balls and hit eight fourswhile the more aggressive Yuvraj has faced 42 balls and hit three ofthem to the fence. The two have so far added 48 runs from 16.4 overs.