New-look Sodhi

The player from Patiala, sporting a new look (he’s done away with his patka), excelled as an opener to shed a two-ton weight on Maharashtra stroking a glorious 251 not out having began the day at overnight 89.

In the process, Punjab amassed 566-4 in reply to the visitors’ 123 on day two of their Elite Group B league clash at the PCA Stadium in Mohali.

Sodhi’s opening partner Ravneet Ricky (77 n.o. overnight) too slammed a century (119: 315 mins, 229 balls, 18×4). Ricky, however, lost concentration and edged one to wicketkeeper Satyajit Satbhai off bowler Anupam Sanklecha.

Sodhi was lucky to be let off by Niranjan Godbole at gully off the same bowler when on 198. That lapse apart, Sodhi was a batsman possessed.

His copybook defence was unbreachable and his big drives were commanding. His only six of the day (second of the innings) was straight off medium pacer Ranjit Khirid.

Sodhi has thus far stayed on the wicket for six hours and ten minutes, faced 406 balls and hit 28 fours and 2 sixes.

This was Sodhi’s second double century in 54 Ranji matches. He had scored 200 not out against Delhi at Patiala (1997-98).

Enjoying in the sun out there was also Yuvraj Singh, who seemed to be warming up for the Bangladesh tour. The left-hander with lazy elegance struck a 76 ball 66 (12×4, 1×6) as Punjab made the scoreboard move at a fast pace.

Skipper Dinesh Mongia missed out edging the second ball to the ’keeper for naught but Pankaj Dharmani (50) and southpaw Ankur Kakkar (55 n.o.) made up for it.

Brief scores

At Rajinder singh Institute Ground, Bangalore
Andhra 237 vs Karnataka 276-6 in 95.3 overs (Thilak Naidu 120).

At Jamia Millia Islamia Ground, New Delhi
Delhi 239-9 decl in 95.4 overs (Sarandeep Singh 37; Sanjay Pandey 4-83, Sunil Dholpure 4-63) vs Madhya Pradesh 207-4 in 75 overs (Amay Khurasiya 61, Devendra Bundela batting 63).

At PCA Stadium, Mohali
Maharashtra 123 vs Punjab 566-4 in 136 overs (Reetinder Singh Sodhi batting 251, Raveent Ricky 119, Yuvraj Singh 66).

At Nehru Stadium, Guwahati
Tamil Nadu 485-5 decl in 144 overs (Hemang Badani 146, S Sriram 82, S Badrinath 73) vs Assam 123-2 in 30 overs (Syed Zakaria Zuffri batting 44, SV Sarvanan batting 46).

At Gymkhana Ground, Hyderabad
Hyderabad 170 & 179-6 in 69.5 overs (Daniel Manohar 58; Rakesh Patel 3-44) vs Baroda 93 in 27.2 overs (Narendra Pal Singh 7-58).

At Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Gujarat 384 in 154.1 overs (Niraj Patel 121, Nilesh Modi 72, Siddharth Trivedi 51; JP Yadav 3-68, Kulamani Parida 3-80) vs Railways 62-2 in 26 overs.

At Jadavpur University Campus, Kolkata
Mumbai 552-7 decl in 165 overs (Wasim jaffer 162, Nishit Shetty 108, Vinit Indulkar 69) vs Bengal 24-0 in 13 overs.