da jogodeouro： Rahul Arora’s unbeaten 112 and his fourth wicket partnership of 121runs with opener Varun Gupta (95) went a long way in clinching thevital first innings lead for Punjab against Saurashtra on the secondday of their Vijay Merchant Trophy knock out
Staff Reporter06-Jan-2001Rahul Arora’s unbeaten 112 and his fourth wicket partnership of 121runs with opener Varun Gupta (95) went a long way in clinching thevital first innings lead for Punjab against Saurashtra on the secondday of their Vijay Merchant Trophy knock out tournament quarterfinalat Kolkata on Saturday. Replying to Saurashtra’s score of 295, Punjabby brisk scoring, had made 312 for six wickets off 78 overs by stumps.Saurashtra had the comfort of some early wickets and at 69 for three,Punjab were not very comfortably placed. But Varun Gupta and RahulArora turned the innings around with their crucial association. Guptawas out at 190 after facing 135 balls and hitting 16 fours. Arorafound another valuable ally in Gaurav Gupta (28) with whom he added 46runs for the sixth wicket. And finally Arora and Tarun Kansh (44 notout) added 65 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket to steer Punjabahead. By close, Arora had batted four hours, faced 163 balls and hitten fours. Kansh, who dominated the unbroken stand, had faced 84 ballsand hit eight of them to the ropes.Earlier, Saurashtra resuming at Thursday’s score of 269 for eight(there was no play on Friday because of a bandh in the state) were allout after adding 26 runs. Amit Sinha, who came in at No 9 on Thursdayevening and resumed at 57, was last out for the top score of 75. Hefaced 144 balls and hit 12 fours. Vipul Sharma, who took both thewickets to fall on Saturday morning, finished with five for 43.