Ricky's 134 puts Punjab in good position

By Our Sports Reporter

MOHALI, FEB. 7. Opener Ravneet Ricky put Punjab in a position from where it can try and press for an outright win over Hyderabad. The Group `C' match of the Ranji Trophy Super League match looked like becoming a see- saw affair with Punjab losing some early wickets this morning, but Ricky denied the opposition almost right through the day at the PCA Stadium here on Monday.

Ricky's 134 (342b, 449m, 15 x 4) helped Punjab declare at 363 for eight, the 246-run lead enough to give its seamers another chance to bowl the opposition out. And with V.V.S. Laxman not taking the field on the third day, aggravating his knee problem, Hyderabad is in a not-so-happy position.

According to rules, Laxman can not come in to bat above the number seven position. All-rounder Parth Satwalkar opened the innings the second time for Hyderabad, which ended the day at 15 without loss.

The day certainly belonged to Ricky, who played as solid a knock as he would have liked to. The Amritsar lad, just back after a fine showing in the Under-19 World Cup, exhibited his potential with his maiden century.

He was understandably slow in the first session, when wickets fell at the other end in the face of some tight bowling from seamer Narendra Pal Singh, who finished with a five-wicket haul, three of them coming this morning.

Punjab, overnight on 127 for two, was pushed on the back foot by Narendra Pal. The medium-pacer had the in-form Pankaj Dharmani caught behind and then trapped Dinesh Mongia leg before immediately afterwards with a ball that kept low. Yuveraj Singh, too, was unlucky to get a delivery that shot through low to find his stumps.

But with wicket-keeper Harminder Jugnu (32) and Sandeep Sharma (68 not out) chipping in with useful efforts, the latter part of the first session and the whole of second again belonged to Punjab. The declaration came a little over an hour after tea.

Sandeep Sharma, who had chipped in with three scalps earlier in the match, hit five fours in his 110-minute fortuitous knock. He was let off thrice by Mohammad Azharuddin, twice in the slip in the same over of Narendra Pal Singh, when on eight, and then towards the end, at long on when on 65.

With the ball relatively new and the ball keeping low from one end, the pressure certainly is on Hyderabad.

The scores:

Hyderabad - 1st innings: 117.

Punjab - 1st innings: Vikram Rathour b N.P. Singh 15, Ravneet Ricky b Azharuddin 134, Reetinder Sodhi lbw b N.P. Singh 21, Pankaj Dharmani c Youraj b N.P. Singh 46, Dinesh Mongia lbw b N.P. Singh 0, Yuveraj Singh b N.P. Singh 8, Harminder Jugnu c Sridhar b Raju 32, Sandeep Sharma (not out) 68, Harbhajan Singh c N.P. Singh b Kanwaljit 16, Navdeep Singh (not out) 5, Extras (b- 6, lb-8, nb-3, w-1) 18, Total (for eight wickets decl.) 363.

Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-56, 3-146, 4- 146, 5-156, 6-213, 7-312, 8-333.

Hyderabad bowling: Narendra Pal Singh 31-9-69-5, Vanka Pratap 3-0-17-0, Venkatapathy Raju 45-14-102-1, Parth Satwalkar 7-0-29- 0, Kanwaljit Singh 32-2-115-1, Vinay Kumar 3-1-8-0, Mohammad Azharuddin 2-0-9-1.

Hyderabad - 2nd innings: Parth Satwalkar (batting) 6, A. Nanda Kishore (batting) 8, Extras (nb-1) 1, Total (for no loss) 15.

Punjab bowling: Sandeep Sharma 4-2-6-0, Gagandeep Singh 4-2-9-0, Reetinder Sodhi 1-1-0-0, Navdeep Singh 1-1-0-0.

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