Punjab see off HP in a thriller

Punjab sneaked home on the last ball to win a thriller against Himachal Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for North Zone in New Delhi on Thursday.

Punjab sneaked home on the last ball to win a thriller against Himachal Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for North Zone in New Delhi on Thursday.

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Chasing 129 for victory, Punjab looked in a spot of bother when they had to get 27 runs off the last three overs. The pressure, however, eased off a bit when Mandeep Singh and Bipul Sharma smashed 12 runs off Abhinav Bali in the 18th over. Himachal, however, kept up the pressure and it wasn’t until the last ball of the match that Punjab sneaked home, with Mandeep Singh hitting the winning runs.

Punjab had got off to a good start with skipper Ravi Inder Singh looking in good touch. On his way to 43, he smashed four boundaries and a six.

They looked in control until the 15th over with 92 runs on the board for the loss of just three wickets. Two tight overs thereafter, however, put them in trouble before Mandeep Singh and Bipul Sharma bailed them out.

Earlier, Vinit Indulkar top scored for Himachal with 41 runs.

In another match, Delhi beat J&K by 19 runs. Batting first after winning the toss, Delhi scored 142 for 6 with Chetan Sharma top scoring with 47. The visitors could manage 123.

For Delhi, Kapil Yadav grabbed four wickets, giving away 15 runs in his quota of four overs.