Punjab strenghtened its chances of winning the Ranji Trophy (North Zone) title as they scored their third consecutive win, a convincing eight wicket vivtory over Jammu and Kashmir in Dharmashala on Thursday.
Medium pacer Gagandeep Singh and Sandip Sanwal claimed six wickets among themselves as Punjab first restricted the minnows for a paltry 157 and then overhauled the total in 27.4 overs.
With the win Punjab is on top of the league with 15 points.
Man of the match Gagandeep, who played an important role in his team's victory over Delhi on Tuesday, finished with a tally of three for 12 while Sanwal returned figures of three for 56.
Amit Unyal chipped in with two wickets while conceding 27 runs in the bargain.
Electing to bat, Jammu and Kashmir made a disasterous losing three wickets for just nine runs.
They could not recover from this disasterous start despite a valiant effort by Shammi Salaria (43) and Inderjit Singh (40), who added 87 runs for the sixth wicket.
Reetinder Singh Sodhi (62 not out) and Yuvraj Singh (63) then added a brisk 131 runs for the second wicket as Punjab wrapped up the issue with a bonus point.
Scorecard
Jammu and Kashmir
N Vani c Sanwal b Uniyal 2
V Singh lbw b Gagandeep Singh 2
K Singh b Gagandeep Singh 28
M Dar c Yuvraj b Gangandeep Singh 0
D Mahajan c Yuvraj b VRV Singh 20
S Salaria run out 43
I Singh b Sanwal 40
B Ishtyak b Sanwal 1
S Baba not out 5
A Nabi b Uniyal 0
J Singh c Sodhi b Sanwal 1
Extras 15
Total (all out in 48.5 overs) 157
Fall of Wickets: 1/3, 2/9, 3/9, 4/59, 5/60, 6/147, 7/149, 8/150, 9/154.
Bowling: Gagandeep 10-3-12-3; Uniyal 7-0-27-2; VRV Singh 5-0-10-1; R Sodhi 5-0-18-0; V Sharma 7-2-11-0; S Sanwal 7.5-0-56-3; D Mongia 5-0-21-0.
Punjab
R Ricky lbw b Nabi 9
R Sodhi not out 62
Y Singh c Naseer b Mahajan 63
D Mongia not out 7
Extras 17
Total (for 2 wkt, 27.4 overs) 158
Fall of Wickets: 1/17, 2/148
Bowling: A Nabi 9-0-56-1; S Baba 6.4-0-46-0; Ishtak 4-0-26-0; I Singh 4-0-13-0; Jagtar Singh 3-0-11-0; D Mahajan 1-0-1-1.
