Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, November 5: A new-look Punjab team will take on the Services in their North Zone league encounter at the Air Force Palam grounds here from tomorrow. Despite its loss to Himachal in the season’s opener (1-day) against Himachal, the team has scored comfortable wins over Himachal and J-K in the latter games.
The visitors have the depth in batting (Navjot Sidhu, Vikram Rathore, Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Sodhi, Pankaj Dharmani) and bowling (Harvinder Singh, Sodhi, Kailash, Sandeep Sharma, Navdeep Singh, Sandeep Swal) to overcome the home team’s inexperience. Harbhajan Singh, cleared’ by former England off-spinner Fred Titmus, may turn out for his team.
Services will once again look up to skipper Chinmaya Sharma for inspiration to take on the mighty Punjab.
Railways Vs Vidarbha: Railways, who have 11 points from two matches, play hosts to Vidarbha in their Central Zone league match at the Karnail Singh Stadium here from tomorrow. Fresh from their good performance against last year’s runners-up UP (whom they beat in the one-dayer), Vidarbha will seek to continue their good show. But the all-round combination of the home team should prove the decisive factor.
The home team’s batting has depth in Prahlad Rawat, Satyendra Yadav, Sanjay Bangar, Saket Bhatia and Yere Goud while their bowling will be manned by Zakir Hussain, Dharmendra Mishra, Javed Zaman (new ball) and M Kartik and K Parida (spin).
Off-spinner Pritam Gandhe and batsmen Ulhas Gandhe and Y Chandurkar are expected to play major roles for the visitors.Medium-pacers should be able to take advantage of early morning moisture in the wicket.
