Punjab collapse against TN

But it was Aashish Kapoor’s day. The wicket of his brother-in-law Vikaram Rathour spurred him on. He hit the deck spot on and invited the batsmen to use the feet with his flight. When he had a tentative Pankaj Dharmani edge a faster one first ball after lunch, the pendulum had swung TN’s way.

Reuben Paul played his role admirably and just about caught everything which came his way.

The afternoon belonged to Yuvraj Singh, the star of the recent U-19 World Cup winning squad. Easy in his stance and elegant in his ways, he made one wonder as to where from the power he could generate in those screaming carpet drives. He hit 10 fours in his 44.

TN opener Sridharan Sriram and Sadagoppan Ramesh settled down well, almost mocking at the attacking field with a spate of boundaries. Sriram was the more assured, and the two carry a lot of hopes when the battle resumes on Friday.

SCOREBOARD

Punjab (1st innings): Vikram Rathour c Mahesh b Kapoor 57, Reetinder Singh Sodhi c Reuben b Bhatia 22, Yuvraj Singh c Reuben b Kumaran 44, Pankaj Dharmani c Reuben b Kapoor 3, Dinesh Mongia c Sriram b Mahesh 33, Sanjay Kumar c Sharath b Kumaran 8, Harminder Singh Jugnu lbw Gokulakrishnan 34, Sandeep Sharma c Reuben b Mahesh 23, Sarandeep Singh c Ramesh b Sriram 20, Harbhajan Singh not out 3, RP Singh c (sub) b Mahesh 1. Extras: (lb5, nb5) 10. Total: (all out in 79.3 overs) 258
Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-97, 3-104, 4-145, 5-162, 6-178, 7-225, 8-254, 9-254
Bowling: Kumaran 17-4-53-2, Mahesh 17.3-1-55-3, Gokulakrishnan 13-1-45-1, Bhatia 7-0-28-1, Kapoor 18-3-68-2, Sriram 7-4-4-1

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): Sridharan Sriram batting 20, Sadagoppan Ramesh batting 18. Extras: (nb2) 2. Total (for no loss): 40
Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 3-0-20-0, RP Singh 3-0-15-0, Harbhajan 2-1-1-0, Sodhi 1-0-4-0.