Khare keeps Chhattisgarh in the contest as Harpreet’s seven-for puts Punjab in control
Amandeep Khare held Chhattisgarh together on Tuesday as Punjab seized the upper hand in their Ranji Trophy second-round match at the New PCA Stadium, after Harpreet Brar took seven wickets in Punjab’s first innings. Asked to follow on, Chhattisgarh were 123 for three at stumps on day three.
Khare produced two contrasting innings across the match, scoring 91 in the first dig and an attritional 37 off 89 balls in the second to anchor a late resistance. Ayush Pandey’s 59 (161b, 8x4, 1x6) and a 74-run stand with Khare for the fourth wicket steadied the visitors after a sudden top-order collapse. Punjab’s earlier first-innings total of 456 had left Chhattisgarh facing a 250-run deficit that forced the follow-on.
The second innings began positively as openers Ayush Pandey and Sanidhya Hurkat removed 48 runs from that 250-run gap, but Emanjot Chahal then struck twice in successive balls to halt the momentum. Harjas Tandon thought he had trapped Pandey on 42, yet a third-umpire review overturned the decision when the off-spinner was found to have overstepped. Sanidhya Hurkat finished the second innings on 25, falling to Emanjot.
Vikalp Tiwari counter-attacked in the morning, opening his repertoire with a swept boundary off Harpreet Brar and pulling a short ball over the wicketkeeper off Gurnoor Brar before edging a few deliveries through the cordon for runs. His resistance ended when Harjas Tandon’s arm-ball struck him in front, leaving him lbw after a positive start; Tiwari had made 47 in the first innings.
Khare’s first-innings 91 (154b, 11x4, 1x6) featured aggressive intent late in the innings — including a slog-sweep off Emanjot and an inside-out drive over cover off Harpreet — but he was eventually caught at mid-off. In the second innings his 37 (89b) was played with a more defensive approach as partners fell around him.
Punjab’s first innings total of 456 came from 152.5 overs with Uday Saharan top-scoring on 161 and Salil Arora contributing 107; Vihaan Malhotra made 40 and Prabhsimran Singh 62. Chhattisgarh’s bowling return included Dharmendra with 55.5-7-173-7, Sandeep 26-2-92-1, Mandal 41-7-98-2, Dev Aditya 23-4-57-0, Vikalp 6-0-27-0 and Ayush 1-0-3-0.
Chhattisgarh’s first innings total was 206 in 64.5 overs with Amandeep Khare the chief contributor on 91; other contributions were Vikalp Tiwari 47 and Ajay Mandal 22, with extras 5. Punjab’s bowling in that innings included Harpreet Brar 23.5-5-56-7, Harjas Tandon 14-2-68-3, Gurnoor 12-1-43-0, Emanjot 13-1-35-0 and Umesh 2-1-3-0.
At stumps on day three Chhattisgarh were 123 for three in 54 overs in their follow-on innings, with extras of 2 (nb-2) and the fall of wickets recorded as 1-48, 2-48, 3-49; Punjab’s second-innings bowling figures included Emanjot 14-8-13-2 and Harpreet 18-4-56-1.
