Mohali: Excellent off spin bowling by young Sarandeep Singh (6 for 41) dragged Services to the doorstep of an innings defeat on the third day of the four day North Zone Ranji Trophy league match at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium here on Tuesday.

Services resumed at their overnight score of 76 for four with Pankaj Maitrey and Saranjeet Singh. Both batsmen played with a cool head and held firm. Punjab skipper Vikram Rathore rotated his bowlers and he was able to break the 70 run partnership for the fifth wicket 36 minutes before lunch. Maitrey (40) played an uppish drive off Sandeep Sharma and was held by at point by Sanjay Kumar at 135. Maitrey stayed at wicket for 158 minutes and faced 113 balls, hitting five of them to the ropes.

After Maitrey's departure, Sevices were bundled out in just 49 minutes and 12.3 overs. Sarandeep Singh was the wrecker-in-chief as he removed the remaining five wickets in a spell of 6.1 overs for 18 runs. The batsmen were unable to negotiate his leg cutters. This was his best bowling effort in his 7th Ranji match. His previous best was 5 for 58 against Hyderabad last year.

Besides Maitrey, only Sarabjeet Singh (26) and G.S.Thapa (17*) managed to reach double figures. The Services innings folded up 13 minutes after lunch at 171. Trailing by 362 runs, they were forced to follow on.

Services started their second innings on a disastrous note when their first wicket fell at 23 with Narender Singh (11) departing. Sarandeep Singh then bagged three quick wickets. Skipper Sanjay Verma (37*) and Sarabjeet Singh (15) showed some resistance as in batting for 77 minutes and adding 40 runs for the fifth wicket before Sarabjeet was brillantly caught at slip by Rathore off Reetinder Sodhi in the bowler's first over. By stumps Services were on the verge of an innings defeat as they still require 250 runs with very limited resources in hand.