Ludhiana record 178-run win

Sports Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 16

Hosts Ludhiana scored an emphatic 178-run win over Fatehgarh Sahib in the first league match in group B in the Punjab State Inter-District One Day Limited Overs Tournament played at GRD Global Education Institute ground on Hambran Road here on Thursday.

Batting first, Ludhiana posted a challenging total of 338 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 50 overs. The architects of their innings were Nehal Wadhera who made 104 runs off 90 balls, with the help of 10 boundaries and three sixes, Vaibhav Kalra who played a fiery innings of 73 runs off 44 balls, which included six sixes and three hits over the fence, besides Deepin Chitka made an invaluable contribution of 43 runs in 20 balls, laced with three sixes and as many hits over the fence.

Tanroop Saini chipped in with 23 runs and Davinder Sidhu scored 20 runs whereas Hartejassvi Kapoor remained unbeaten on 15 runs.

For the visitors, Kushan Modi was the most successful bowler, scalping three wickets for 67 runs. Mohit Sharma captured two wickets for 53 runs while Vikram Arora, Lovepreet Kamboj and Kabir Kohli claimed apiece each.

Chasing a daunting task, Fatehgarh Sahib failed to sustain the pressure of scoring

at 6.77 runs per over and caved in at 160 runs after 42.4 overs in which Devi Chand Yadav made 37 runs, Gurmail Singh contributed 19 runs, Rimanjeet Singh scored 17 runs. Besides, Kunal Malhotra and Lovepreet Kamboj accounted for 16 runs each while Vicky Singh chipped in with 14 runs.

For Ludhiana, Tanroop Saini was the pick of bowlers. He sent down nine overs, gave away just 13 runs and secured four wickets. Nehal Wadhera got two wickets for only four runs, Deepin Chitka grabbed one wicket for 20 runs in eight overs and Mohit Kumar took one for 40 runs.

For his outstanding all-round performance (104 runs and 2 for 4), Nehal Wadhera was declared the player of the match.

The second match will be played between Ludhiana and Mohali here on September 18.