The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Punjab, Hyderabad in Plate final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Punjab, Hyderabad in Plate final

CHENNAI, JAN. 11. Punjab qualified for the Cooch Behar Trophy (inter-State, under-19) Plate final, putting it across Tamil Nadu on first innings verdict in the three-day semifinal at the Chidambaram Stadium here on Tuesday.

Resuming its second essay at 48 without loss, after garnering a first innings lead of 78, the visitor declared at 281 for nine in the seventh mandatory over. Play was called off subsequently.

Opener Sunny Sohal (overnight 30) notched up his second century (101, 200m, 135b, 16x4) of the competition and added 96 for the opening wicket with Ravinder Singh (37) and 76 for the next with Vipin Kumar (31).

Punjab was 178 for three at lunch — a phase when bat dominated ball — but found runs difficult to come by in the second session when it could muster only 62 runs while losing four wickets.

It was during this phase that left-arm spinner T. Suresh Kumar struck it rich, as he picked up four of his five wickets.

Wicketkeeper H. Gopinath had a hand in five dismissals for a second time in the match.

Tamil Nadu will meet Andhra, which conceded a first-innings lead to Hyderabad in their drawn encounter at Visakhapatnam, in the four-day losing semifinalists' match here from January 15.

The contest will determine which team will move to the Elite group next season.

At the Zinc stadium in Visakhapatnam, a century by Amol Shinde and his 135-run stand for the sixth wicket with Kushal Jilla saw Hyderabad gaining the all-important first innings lead over Andhra and take the team into the Plate final.

Shinde and Kushal on 60 and 11 respectively overnight resumed at the team's score of 172 for five and with their fine batting, helped Hyderabad score 386 in its first innings in reply to the host's total of 270.

Shinde, who put on 61 runs with R.A. Viswanath on the second day, scored 131 runs (4x15) and Kushal made 83 (6x1, 4x8) to dash Andhra's hopes of gaining the first innings lead. Later M.P. Arjun scored 40 runs (3x4).

K. Bharat Reddy was the most successful Andhra bowler with four wickets.

Andhra was 15 for no loss in its second innings.

The scores:

At Chennai:

Punjab 249 & 281 for nine decl in 97 overs (Sunny Sohal 101, T. Suresh Kumar five for 68) drew with Tamil Nadu 171.

At Visakhapatnam:

Andhra 270 and 15 for no loss drew with Hyderabad 386 in 172 overs (Amol Shinde 131, Kushal Jilla 83, M.P. Arjun 40, K. Bharat Reddy four for 77).

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