Goel steers Punjab to 123-run victory over Haryana

New Delhi, Feb 26 (UNI) Riding on opener Karan Goel's superb 125-ball 122, Punjab overpowered Haryana by 123 runs in the Ranji one-day (North Zone) match at Harbax stadium here today.

Punjab captain Pankaj Dharmani was well responded by his batsmen to post a total of 297 after he won the toss and elected to bat first.

Karan Goel was involved in two important partnerships with Ravinder Singh (31) and captain Pankaj Dharmani (40) for the second (95 runs) and third wicket (98 runs) stands to guide their team to a challenging total.

The centurion opener punctuated his innings with 12 hits to the fence and four sixes.

Goel used the powerplays to good effect as Punjab raced to 100 only in the 15th over.

Haryana's run-chase was later restricted by Punjab's tight spell of bowling as the former lost wickets at quick intervals to be bowled out for 174 in 44.3 overs.

After Haryana lost both it's openers at the score of 29, Sachin Rana and Sunny Singh tried to stitch the innings and added 57 runs for the third wicket stand to take the score to 86.

But Haryana were soon jolted by Punjab bowlers as it lost three wicket at the score 86 to make it 86 for five.

For Punjab, pacer Gagandeep Singh claimed three wickets while Sarabjit Ladda and Ankur Kakkar chipped in with a couple of wickets each.

Scoreboard: Punjab innings: Sunny Sohai c Sandeep Singh b Sanjay Budhwar 24 Karan Goel lbw b Prem Prateek 122 Ravinder Singh st Sandeep Singh b Priyank Hooda 31 Pankaj Dharmani c Sandeep Singh b Amardepep Sonkar 40 Uday Kaul b Amardeep Sonkar 26 Ravneet Ricky not out 24 Manpreet Singh lbw b Amardeep Sonkar 0 Ankur Kakkar c Abir Lavasa b Amit Mishra 1 VRV Singh st Sandeep Singh b Amit Mishra 0 Gagandeep Singh not out 2 Extras: (B 0, LB 4, NB 2, W 21) 27 Total (in 50 overs) 297 for 9 Bowling Sanjay Budhwar 5-0-28-1 Jitender Billa 5-0-41-0 Sachin Rana 3-0-24-0 Amardeep Sonkar 10-63-3-0 Prem Prateek 7-0-41-2 Amit Mishra 10-0-41-2 Priyank Hooda 10-0-54-1 Haryana innings: Amardeep Sonkar c Ravinder Singh b VRV Singh 3 Amit Mishra b Gagandeep Singh 12 Sunny Singh c Ankur Kakkar b Gagandeep Singh 42 Sachin Rana b Manpreet Singh 20 Abir Lavasa b Gagandeep Singh 0 Sumit Sharma b Sarabjit Ladda 54 Prem Prateek lbw b Sarabjit Ladda 6 Priyank Hooda run out 7 Sandeep Singh lbw b Ankur Kakkar 1 Jitender Billa lbw b Ankur Kakkar 0 Sanjay Budhwar not out 17 Extras: (B 3, LB 2, NB 0, W 7) 12 Total (in 44.3 overs) 174 allout Bowling Gagandeep Singh 10-2-42-3 VRV Singh 8-0-39-1 Manpreet Singh 5-0-16-1 Sarabjit Ladda 8.3-0-34-2 Ankur Kakkar 9-2-29-2 Karan Goel 4-1-9-0 UNI RAR RKM RAI2130