Chandigarh tighten noose around Manipur

Chandigarh, February 13

Gurinder Singh hit an unbeaten double century before claiming a five-wicket haul as Chandigarh imposed follow-on against Manipur on Day 2 of their Ranji Trophy Plate Group match in Kolkata today.

Resuming at 352/5, Chandigarh lost Uday Kaul for the addition of just five runs to the total. The wicketkeeper-batsman fell to Rex Rajkumar on the overnight score of 148.

Bipul Sharma, who was batting on 119 yesterday, was then joined by Gurinder and the duo took the Chandigarh total to 529 before Sunil Salam broke through for the hosts. The 172-run partnership between the two came to end when the medium pacer cleaned up Sharma on 200.

Gurinder, though, maintained the aggressive approach and raced to 200 in just 171 balls. His unbeaten knock was studded with 23 fours and four sixes. Chandigarh eventually declared their innings closed on 672/8. Arpit Singh remained not out on 16 and together with Gurinder raised a 122-run stand for the ninth wicket.

Manipur, in reply, were bowled out for just 63 runs in their first innings. Gurinder was the wrecker-in-chief for Chandigarh, claiming 5/19 in his seven overs. Arpit took 3/11, while Jagjit Singh Sandhu bagged 1/14. Gemson Singh and Bishworjit Singh made 18 runs each for the hosts.

Asked to follow-on, Manipur, in their second innings, were batting on 33/0 at the close of second day's play. Captain Narsingh Yadav was unbeaten on 15 and Basir Rahman was on 9. — TNS