Ludhiana beat Moga on 1st innings lead, enter semis

Anil Datt

Ludhiana, August 18

The fourth and last league match in group B between Ludhiana and Moga, played at GRD Global Education Institute on Hambran Road here on Wednesday in the ongoing Punjab State Inter-District U-16 Cricket Tournament ended in a draw but the former were declared winners on the basis of first innings lead.

Yesterday, hosts Ludhiana were in a comfortable position as they restricted the visitors’ first innings to a small total of 91 runs and then began their reply on a positive note, posting 113 runs after 39 overs without losing a wicket.

However, today Ludhiana squandered away the advantage. Last night not out batsmen, Karanveer Rana (75) and Jaiveer Singh (36), lost their wickets without adding a single run. Once they left, Ludhiana batting line-up folded like a pack of cards. Their innings culminated at 155 runs in 66 overs.

Harmanjot and Shubham Rana of Moga ripped apart Ludhiana batting line-up, grabbing five wickets each. Harmanjot sent down 20 overs, gave away 29 runs and took five wickets, while Shubham got five wickets for 39 runs in 15 overs.

Enjoying first innings lead of 64 runs, Ludhiana pressed hard to bowl out Moga in the second innings but the visitors thwarted hosts and managed to hang on till the scheduled time. When the play was called off at the stroke tea time, Moga in their second essay were 87 for three after 40 overs thus denying Ludhiana an outright victory.

Gurnoor (39 not out) and Harish Kumar (10 not out) were at the crease. Sagarenvarsh made 16 runs and Gurbal contributed 15 runs.

Ludhiana secured three points to take their points tally to 16 from four matches and made it to the knock-out stage. Now, in the semifinal, scheduled to be played from August 20 to 23 at Amritsar, Ludhiana will take on Amritsar.