da 888casino： Ludhiana: Reetinder Sodhi’s unbeaten century put Punjab in acommanding position as they scored 276 for two at the draw of stumpsagainst Delhi on the first day of their fourth league match of thisseason’s Ranji Trophy four day match at the Punjab
Rajesh Arora14-Nov-1999Ludhiana: Reetinder Sodhi’s unbeaten century put Punjab in acommanding position as they scored 276 for two at the draw of stumpsagainst Delhi on the first day of their fourth league match of thisseason’s Ranji Trophy four day match at the Punjab AgricultureUniversity ground here today.Punjab skipper Vikram Rathour again proved lucky with the coin andrightfully opted to bat first on a hard and dry wicket. Rathour andReetinder Sodhi opened the innings. Rathour enjoyed an early life ashe was dropped from the second ball of the innings at fine leg byRobin Singh junior off Ashish Nehra. Rathour then played his naturalgame and hit 8 boundaries and two huge sixes during his knock of 75runs which came off 129 balls. The duo added 128 runs for the openingwicket off 243 balls. Rathour was caught at deep mid wicket by MithunManhas as he mistimed a pull off Harinder Chaudhary.Yuvraj Singh who came in at the fall of Rathour’s wicket was dismissedby Ashish Nehra’s devastating yorker before opening hisaccount. Pankaj Dharmani (77*) who joined Sodhi (104*) was in troubleas he was dropped twice by Ajay Sharma and Akash Malhotra at 13 and17. The bowler to suffer on both the occasions was Sandeep Angurala.Reetinder Sodhi who was playing with a cool head at the other endmotivated Dharmani and they consolidated the innings by taking singlesand twos. Sodhi completed his second century in style as he made anextra cover drive off Harinder Chaudhary. He stayed at the wicket forthe whole day and faced 260 balls, almost half of the balls bowledtoday. His knock contained eleven sweetly timed boundaries. This washis 21st innings of the 16th Ranji match. His first century was alsoagainst Delhi which was an unbeaten double hundred in 1997-98.Dharmani played a gallant knock after his two lives as he struck tenboundaries and a six after facing 149 balls. This season he hasalready scored 654 runs and has been dismissed only once. He and Sodhihave so far added 147 runs for the unfinished third wicketpartnership. Except Ashish Nehra, no other Delhi bowler wasimpressive.