An unbeaten 99 by Mahesh Rawat and his 111-run partnership with Sachin Rana (62) helped Haryana score 332 for 8 in their second innings on the penultimate day of their four-day Elite Group Ranji Trophy match at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Saturday.
Giving Rawat company at the crease was Amit Mishra on 28.
Despite 340 runs lead with two second innings wickets in hand, Haryana did not declare the innings closed giving Rawat the chance to complete a well-deserved century.
Rawat's best in Ranji Trophy was 68 against Tripura two seasons ago.
''We will continue to bat and we have already gained an eight-run first innings lead. The pressure is on Punjab who are playing on their home ground,'' said Harayana Coach Ashwani.
Asked if he would go for an outright win by declaring the innings closed tomorrow immediately after Rawat posting his three-figure mark, the Haryana coach said, ''We have already two points in our pocket and Punjab's efforts may be to garner four points with an outright win. We may dismiss them in the fourth innings tomorrow''.
Haryana, like in the first innings, were bolstered by their tail enders.
With top four batsmen returning to the pavilion with scorecard reading 68, the tail wagged again with batsman number eight Mahesh Rawat and Sachin Rana putting up a century partnership for the eighth wicket.
Rawat has so far hit 12 fours and one six in 181 deliveries in 276 minutes.
All-rounder Rana's knock of 62 contained six fours in 107 balls in 132 minutes.
This partnership was broken by Gagandeep who had Rana caught by Ishan Malhotra at square leg.
All-rounder Joginder Sharma contributed 43 runs with the help of five fours in 92 deliveries.
Punjab medium pacer Gagandeep Singh emerged the most successful bowler claiming nine wickets in the match so far. He captured five wickets for 109 runs.
Scorecard
Haryana (Ist innings): 232
Punjab (Ist innings) 224
Haryana (2nd innings, overnight 38 for 2):
Chetan Sharma lbw Gagandeep 0
Bhageshwar Bisht lbw Gagandeep 29
Sunny Singh c Mjnish b Mongia 15
Siddharath Verma c Mongia b Gagandeep 20
Shafiq Khan c Gourav Gupta b I Malhotra 20
Joginder Sharma c Pankaj Dharmani b Rajesh Sharma 43
Pardeep Sahu lbw Gagandeep 8
Mahesh Rawat batting 99
Sachin Rana c Ishan Malhotra b Gagandeep 62
Amit Mishra batting 28
Extras (nb 4, w 2, lb 2) 8
Total (for 8 wickets, 108 overs) 332.
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-34, 3-57, 4-68, 5-100, 6-116, 7-170, 8-281.
Bowling: Gagandeep 36-8-109-5, Ishan Malhotra 25-5-88-1, Rajesh Sharma 14-1-70-1, Dinesh Mongia 14-1-20-1, Reetinder Sodhi 5-2-10-0, Navdeep Singh 11-4-20-0, Ravneet Ricky 3-0-13-0.
