Punjab v Haryana (Ranji, North Zone)

Rakesh Sanghi, CricInfo
20-23 November 1998

Punjab crawled to 225 for 3 on the opening day of their last League match of the North Zone Ranji Trophy against Haryana at the Gandhi Stadium, Amritsar.

Electing to bat, Punjab was well served by two useful stands and as many half centuries. Openers Reetinder Sodhi (51, 1x6, 6x4) and skipper Vikaram Rathour (45, 1x6, 6x4) put on 87 runs for the first wicket. After the pair were separated in the space of a mere 16 runs, Pankaj Dharmani (68, 1x6, 8x4) and young Ravneet Ricky (40, 3x4) added 97 runs for the third wicket which helped Punjab to carry their total past 200. Rathour was caught at mid-wicket to give Pankaj Thakur the first of his three wickets for the day.

Soon after lunch Sodhi was dismissed, bat-pad, Rickey went in similar fashion after tea. Without a doubt Dharmani took the batting honours for the day. For Haryana, Pankaj Thakur captured three wickets giving away 81 runs.

Day 3 Report

Amarjeet Kaypee notched his 25th Ranji Trophy century to help Haryana save follow-on on the penultimate day of the North Zone Ranji Trophy match at Gandhi Ground, Amritsar.

Needing 286 to go past the follow-on target, Haryana survived the day and reached 340 for nine at stumps in reply to Punjab's first innings total of 435. Pankaj Thakur (29*) and Vineet Jain (12*) have so far added 46 runs for the last wicket. But the day truly belonged to the 38 year old Amarjeet Kaypee (145, 365m, 250b, 23x4) playing his 99th match and 146th innings, Kaypee was associated in three fruitful partnership with Shafiq Khan, Sanjay Dalal, and Pradeep Jain. He added 106 with Khan (32, 5x4) for the fourth wicket, 92 with Sanjay Dalal (43, 1x6, 5x4) for the 7th wicket, and another 60 with Pradeep Jain (33, 5x4) for the 8th wicket.

During the course of this historic innings, Kaypee became only the third batsman in the Ranji championship to score 25 centuries after Ajay Sharma of Delhi (29) and Brijesh Patel of Karnataka (26). In run-aggregate he stands third behind Ashok Malhotra and Brijesh Patel.