Punjab clashed with neighbouring Haryana in their final encounter in the Ranji One-Day league of 1999-2000. With three wins each going into the last set of games, Punjab and Delhi were neck and neck in the race for the North Zone title. Delhi being expected to win easily against Jammu & Kashmir, the onus was on Punjab to win and maintain a good Net Run Rate in the process.

Played at the Nehru Stadium in Gurgaon, visitors Punjab won the toss and chose to take first strike. Pankaj Dharmani (53) and Yuvraj Singh (42) were the mainstays of the innings but a moderate total of 220 left a glimmer of an opening for Haryana.

At 82/2, Haryana looked like mounting a serious challenge but the middle order fell apart in the face of some potent spin bowling by Punjab's spin troika of Navdeep Singh, Sarandeep Singh and Yuvraj Singh. It was the offspinner Sarandeep who opened the floodgates by castling opener Jasvir Singh for 42 and then shorly afterwards taking a return catch to dismiss the dangerous Rajesh Puri.

Haryana had slipped to 103/4 and they never recovered from those twin blows, sliding to 149 all out in the 42nd over to give Punjab a 71 run victory, Sarandeep producing figures of 2/19 from seven overs. Delhi duly won their final game but as it turned out Punjab's Net Run Rate of +1.61 was enough to carry the day. With eight victims in the competition at an average of 12.75 apiece, Sarandeep could take justly pride in being one of the pillars of Punjab's success.