New Delhi: Punjab pummelled Delhi by 10 wickets for their maiden win of the season here Friday while handing the hosts their first Ranji Trophy loss at home in five years.
With Punjab controlling the game from day one, it was only a matter of time before they scored an outright win, fetching seven points. Delhi, who were gasping at 106 for six in their second innings and trailing Punjab by 69 runs at stumps on day two, ended up with 179 courtesy Pulkit Narang (31) and Pulkit Sood (25).
Punjab needed just five runs for a big win and they knocked it off in 2.1 overs with Jiwanjot Sharma and Abhishek Sharma in the middle. With the emphatic win, Punjab have revived their Ranji campaign after having collected just two points from the previous two games.
On the other hand, Delhi’s troubles have increased with their first loss of the season. They had conceded the first-innings lead against Hyderabad and could not dismiss Himachal Pradesh in their opener for an outright win. Delhi’s batting let them down again though they did a tad better than the first innings, in which they were bundled out for 107.
In the first innings, they surrendered to Punjab’s Siddharth Kaul while in the second, they were done in by spinners Vinay Choudhary and Mayank Markande. Punjab had made 282 in the first innings, thanks to a captain’s knock by Mandeep Singh (90). Yuvraj Singh, playing his first game of the season, made 24 off 88 balls.