Facing an Herculean task of scoring 402 runs for victory, Himachal Pradesh, overnight 127 for 5, surrendered their remaining five wickets for just 78 runs this morning. Their innings, which lasted 359 minutes in 83.1 overs, was terminated 17 minutes before lunch. Rajiv Nayyar, overnight 38, alone contributed 47 runs out of 78 Himachal Pradesh batsmen scored today.

Coming at number three, Nayyar occupied the crease for 352 minutes and reached the fence 11 times. He was the last batsman to be out when he was caught at covers by Vikram Rathroe off the bowling of Navdeep Singh (3 for 29).

Reetinder Sodhi (3 for 40), Sarandeep Singh (3 for 48) were the other main wicket-takers for Punjab. All-rounder Reetinder Sodhi, who was playing his 13th Ranji Trophy match, has so far claimed 18 wickets. This was the first time that he had taken five wickets in an innings. With three more wickets in the second Himachal innings, young Sodhi returned impressive bowling analysis was 30.5-9-70-8.
Punjab (Ist innings): 354
Himachal Pradesh (Ist innings): 129
Punjab (2nd innings): 176 for six decl
Himachal Pradesh (2nd innings): Rahul Panta c Sanjay Kumar b Sandeep Sharma 8, Nischal Gaur lbw Reetinder Sodhi 37, Rajiv Nayyar c Vikram Rathore b Navdeep 85, Sangram Singh c Dinesh Mongia b Navdeep Singh 21, Yashwant Pal Singh c Amit Sharma b Navdeep Singh 0, Ajay Rai lbw Sarandeep Singh 15, Ajay Mannu c Amit Sharma b Sarandeep Singh 0, Jaswant Rai c Pankaj Dharmani b Sarandeep Singh 0, Arun Verma c Pankaj Dharmani b Reetinder Sodhi 17, Shakit Singh b Reetinder Sodhi 2, Parveen Sharma not out 8. Extras (nb-9, w-2, lb-1) 12. Total (all out in 83.1 overs) 205.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-55, 3-95, 4-95, 5-127, 6-127, 7-127, 8-174, 9-176.
Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 17-3-47-1, Reetinder Sodhi 15-4-40-3, Sarandeep Singh 20-4-48-3, Navdeep Singh 20.1-10-29-3, Sandeep Sawal 11-1-40-0.

Satinder shines
A brilliant knock of 70 runs by Satinder Pal Singh helped St John's High School-26 beat Bhavan Vidyalaya-27 by 31 runs, to enter the final of under-16 group in the Edmund Rice cricket tournament, today.

In another match St Xavier School-44 defeated St Anne's School-32 by nine runs to move in to the final.
Brief scores: St John's-26: 206 for 5 in 25 overs (Satinder Pal 70, Harneet Arora 54, Rajat Talwar 31, Hiteshwar Pruthi 16 n.o); BV-27: 175 in 24.4 overs (Rahul Kumar 79, Kanav 18, Hardeep 12, Raghuvar 11, Animash Sharma 2 for 3, Akshay Verma 2 for 9). St Xavier School-44: 155 in 25 overs (Udai 34, Sumit 22, Bhupinder 13, Satbir 2 for 23, Gaurav 2 for 29); St Anne's-32: 146 for 9 in 25 overs (Jugbadal 26, Aditya 20, Anuj 18, Charanjeev 2 for 18, Bhupinder 2 for 9).

Title for GMHS-26
Government Model High School-26 cagers beat Sacred Heart-26 by 12-2 in their last match to win first position in girls category in the Chandigarh State Sub-Junior basketball championship at DAV School in Sector 8, today. In another match GMS-16 defeated Sacred Heart School by 15-12 in extra time. Both the teams were 10-10 each in the regulation period.

Sacred Heart players were third in the round robin league match. The boys final will be played tomorrow between DAV Public School Club-8 and New Public School-18. GMHS-26 has logded a protest against DAVPS Club for fielding overage player.