Punjab’s hopes of not giving the edge to Uttar Pradesh on the final day rest solely on veteran opener Ravneet Ricky in their Ranji Trophy Super League match. Gaining the first innings lead after ending Uttar Pradesh’s innings at 375—six short of Punjab’s first innings total—the hosts ended Day Three at 238/7 with Ricky unbeaten on 76.UP put up a splendid performance on the field to set the tone for an exciting finish. VRV, continuing from where he had left off yesterday, picked up the wicket of Piyush Chawla in the first over of the day. Manpreet Gony then trapped Abid Khan lbw in the next over with UP still needing 23 runs to gain the lead. Praveen Kumar hit some quick runs, hitting Gony for 12 runs before Sudeep Tyagi gave a simple catch to Pankaj Dharmani.With a slender lead, Punjab made a confident start with Karan Goel and Sunny Sohal putting on 37 runs for the opening wicket before Goel was bowled by Praveen Kumar in the eleventh over. Sohal too followed suit, but Ravinder and skipper Dharmani steadied things before the latter edged a delivery straight into the hands of Amir Khan. Uday Kaul departed without opening his account. However, UP came back in the game with three wickets falling for 52 runs. Brief scores: Punjab: 381 and 238 for 7 in 83 overs (Ravneet Ricky batting 72; Chawla 3/50); Uttar Pradesh: 375 in 70.1 overs (Suresh Raina 123, Mohammed Kaif 66).
