Haryana force draw

Only an outright win (eight points) would take MP into the quarter-finals while the hosts needed just a draw to advance. With leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani striking three early blows and medium pacers Bundela and H S Sodhi accounting for opener Jitender Singh and Amarjeet Kaypee, the die was cast for Haryana.

But opener Parinder Sharma (79 not out: 360m, 263b, 10×4), playing only his eighth match, and Ishan Ganda (47: 161m, 124b, 4×4), laying his second encounter, defied the Madhya Pradesh attack for almost 40 overs to deny the visitors outright victory and earn a creditable draw for the home team.

Both Parinderand Ishan withstood the pressure of the situation as well as from the bowlers.

Hirwani, in particular, bowled a few beamers to unsettle the batsmen. In fact, the Haryana team management lodged a verbal protest with match referee Piloo Reporter over the `unfair’ methods used by the MP bowlers.

Haryana’s Dhanraj Singh and Pradeep Jain were victims of Hirwani’s beamers. Three overs into the post-lunch session, Haryana were tattering at 73 for five from 40 overs. But they did not lose the next wicket until 2.5 overs after the second new ball had been claimed 35 minutes before close.

With the three points earned from this game, Haryana aggregated 19 points, one more than MP, to make it to the quarter-finals.

SCOREBOARD

MP (1st Innings): 298.

Haryana (1st Innings): 232.

MP (2nd Innings): 242-9 decl

HARYANA (2nd Innings): J Singh b Bundala 5, P Sharma not out 79, D Singh c HS Sodhi b Hirwani 17, S Khan c Lahore b Hirwani 9, P Jain c Raja Ali b Hirwani 4, A Kaypee bHS Sodhi 1, I Ganda b HS Sodhi 47, V Yadav not out 19. Extras (b 5, lb 5, nb 4, w 1): 15. Total (for 6 wkts): 196.

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-56, 3-66, 4-72, 5-73, 6-167.

Bowling: Sodhi 18-5-40-2, Bundela 8-1-21-1, JP Yadav 6-3-4-0, Hirwani 34-8-74-3, Lahore 17-5-25-0, Dwivedi 4-2-5-0, Majithia 4-3-9-0, Pandit 2-0-8-0.