After Chandigarh struggled against Zone A in its last match, formidable Chandigarh came back strongly against Jalandhar today, and cleaned up them for paltry 96 runs in 45.5 overs in the match held at Sector 16 Stadium on Saturday.

Batting first, Jalandhar was skittled out for 96 in 45.5 overs. It was Chandigarh off-spinner Gaurav Gambhir who scalped 3 wickets for 27 runs and helped his team clean up Jalandhar. India U-19 opener Taruwar Kohli again faltered as he could not open his account. Surinder Sharma scored 29 runs for Jalandhar. In reply, Chandigarh came good with the bat were 203 for 3 at the end of the day.

Openers Sarul Kanwar and skipper Vishwas Bhalla were involved in opening partnership of 69 runs of 12.5 overs. Batting two down, southpaw Smirat Bawa slaughtered the bowlers scoring blistering half-century. He is unbeaten on 62 runs along with Uday Kaul who is batting at Uday Kaul 31 not out.

In the second match played at PCA Stadium, Mohali packed Zone A for 84 in 36 overs. Medium-pacer Varun Khanna (4 for 17) and left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh (4 for 28) destroyed Zone A's batting line-up.

Batting second, Mohali scored 210 for 4 in 51 overs before they applied the closure to their innings. Opener Ishan Dogra was in a devastating mood as he plundered an unbeaten 133 runs of 154 balls. He sent all the bowlers on a leather hunt and hit 14 sizzling fours and 4 towering sixes. He was associated in an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 91 runs with Yuvraj Singh 30 not out. Left-arm spinner Bhagwan Singh took 2 for 65 for Zone-A. Zone A were 7 for one in their second innings at the end of the day's play and were trailing by 119 runs with 9 wickets in hand.

... contd.