Deepin, Kashish bowl Ludhiana into last four

Our Sports Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 16

Defending a modest first innings score of 247 runs, Ludhiana did a commendable job by restricting Chandigarh to 245 runs to pull off a win by two runs and book a berth in the semifinal in the ongoing Inter-District Cricket-(U-23) Tournament for Punjab Championship, being played at Jathedar Santokh Singh Margind Sports Stadium Sewa Committee, Dulay village, on Saturday.

Deepin Chitkara and captain Kashish Pasneja shared the bowling exploits to enable Ludhiana to emerge winners on the basis of the first innings lead, though a slender one.

Deepin bowled the first over of the day. In total he bowled a marathon spell of 38 overs, including eight maiden and took four wickets for 92 runs. Kashish secured five wickets for 70 runs.

 Resuming at overnight score of 43 for one, Chandigarh started proceedings treading cautiously. They lost two wickets at the score of 88, which forced them to shackles. Last night not out batsmen Jasnoor Singh (23*) and Arjun Azad (15*) returned to the pavilion after contributing 44 and 39 runs, respectively, (88 for 3).

Then, Arjit and Raman Bishnoi rose to the occasion. The duo was engaged in a 60-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Arjit scored 40 runs while Raman contributed 32 runs to take the scoreboard reading to 148 for five.

The next man on the crease was Jagmeet Singh, who too chipped in 42 runs, before losing his wicket. All these three wickets were taken by Deepin Chitkara, which paved the way for Ludhiana to tighten screws over the match.

Ludhiana skipper Kashish Pasneja got rid of the remaining four batsmen and steered his side to register a thrilling two-run victory on the basis of first innings lead and book a place in the semifinal.

Ludhiana will take on Mohali in the semifinal.

Brief scores 

• Ludhiana (first innings): 247 all out in 77.1 overs (Jaish Jain 81, Kashish Pasneja 75, Nehal Wadhera 34, Gurjot Singh 14 and Rahul Khanna 15 not out; Arpit Singh 6 for 113, Arshdeep Singh 2 for 28, Jagjit Singh 1 for 46 and Bhagwinder 1 for 55).
• Chandigarh (first innings): 245 all out in 86.1 overs (Shivam Bhandari 5, Jasnoor Singh 44, Arjun Azad 39, Arjit 40, Raman Bishnoi 32, Jagmeet Singh 42 and Pradeep Yadav 23; Kashish Pasneja 5 for 70, Deepin Chitkara 4 for 92 and Nikhil Chaudhary 1 for 14).