A middle order collapse saw Punjab being bowled out for 175 in the first innings on the opening day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite group match against Baroda at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Thursday.
Baroda won the toss and opted to field. Medium pacers Shekhar Joshi (three wickets for 36 runs), I S Pathan (three for 49) and Rakesh Patel (two for 57) were the main wicket takers.
Opener Ravneet Rickey (42, 4x6) batted well but failed to get any support from his team mates after the exit of Binwant Singh (15) when the board read 37.
Local star Yuvraj Singh (0) failed, being bowled by Joshi after the addition of just two runs to the Punjab total.
Thereafter, wickets fell at regular intervals with the scoreboard moving at a slow pace. Dinesh Mongia (8), Pankaj Dharmani (11), Ankur Kakkar (2) Chandan Madan (0) returned to the pavilion in quick succession.
Rickey was the seventh wicket to fall, out leg before, with the total reading 106. But the Punjab tail added 69 runs for the last three wickets.
Amit Uniyal (14), Gagandeep Singh (22), Vineet Sharma (11) and not out batsman Navdeep
Singh (22) batted resolutely to enable the side put up a decent total.
Baroda were nine without loss at stumps. Connor Williams (3) and Satyajit Parab (6) were unbeaten at the crease.
Scorecard
Punjab (1st innings):
R Ricky lbw Joshi 42
B Singh lbw Patel 15
Y Singh b Joshi 0
D Mongia lbw Patel 8
P Dharmani c Mongia b I Pathan 11
A Kakkar lbw Joshi 2
C Madan c Parab b I Pathan 0
A Uniyal run out (Pawar) 14
N Singh not out 22
G Singh c Mongia b I Pathan 22
V Sharma lbw b Pawar 11
Extras: (b 7, lb 10, nb 11) 28
Total: (all out, 70 overs, 308 mins) 175
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-39, 3-51, 4-71, 5-74, 6-78, 7-106, 8-121, 9-150, 10-175.
Bowling: Patel 24-5-57-2, I Pathan 19-4-49-3, Joshi 23-8-36-3, Y Pathan 2-0-7-0, Pawar 2-0-9-1.
Baroda (1st innings):
C Williams not out 3
S Parab not out 6
Extras: 0
Total: (0 wickets, 2 overs) 9
To Bat: N Mongia, K Powar, J Martin, R Pawar, R Patel, S Joshi, Y Pathan, S Gaekwad, I Pathan.
Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 1-0-6-0, Sharma 1-0-3-0.