CHENNAI, Aug 15: Punjab Cricket Association, with a first innings lead of 96 runs, were sitting pretty against Indian Oil on the penultimate day of the three-day Buchi Babu cricket tournament at Indian Pistons-CPT ground here on Friday.

Thanks mainly to their opening pair of Manav Mehra and RS Shodi who provided a solid base with a century partnership, the Punjab team made 251 in 93.2 overs in reply to Indian Oil's 155.

By close, PCA had reduced Indian Oil to 35 for two in seven overs. Medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma accounted for both wickets. Wasim Jaffer (18) and Mandhar Phadke (0) were at the crease.

In the other first round match, Karnataka XI face a difficult task of scoring a further 146 in 32 overs with seven wickets in hand against Indian Airlines at MMC, Tambaram.

At close, Karnataka XI had lost three wickets for 36 in eight overs. Earlier they were dismissed for 143 to concede a lead of 40 runs. Indian Airlines, who scored 183 in their first innings, finished at 141 for nine in the stipulated 40 overs in their second knock.

Manav and Shodi played cautiously to put on 102 runs for PCA. While Manav made 66 (3x4; 188b), Sodhi scored 48 from 113 deliveries with the help of two fours and as many sixes. There was another useful 46-run association for the fourth wicket between Dinesh Mongia (36; 93b; 1x4) and Rakesh Saini (23). Off spinner Hemanth Kanikar bowled well to claim three for 47.

In the other match, D Ganesh, who struck vital blows on his home team Karnataka XI with a three-wicket haul yesterday, took one more today and finished with four for 42, while medium pacer Abdul Gyoom had excellent figures of 15-2-35-4 to get the vital first innings lead for IA. For Karnataka, Sriram top scored with 58 (110b; 4x4) followed by a breezy unbeaten 30 (3x4; 1x6; 60b) by David Johnson, while Anand Katti chipped in with 20.

Former Indian left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi, who had seven victims in the Airlines first innings, continued his good form by claiming five more for 33 runs in the second innings. Anand Katti gave him good support, bagging three wickets. Sanjay Sharma scored 31 while Ganesh remained undef