da winzada777： An unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 99 off 33.3 overs betweenopener Ratan Kumar and MS Dhoni rescued Bihar from a shaky position onthe opening day of their Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) final againstPunjab at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur
16-Dec-1999An unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 99 off 33.3 overs betweenopener Ratan Kumar and MS Dhoni rescued Bihar from a shaky position onthe opening day of their Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) final againstPunjab at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Thursday. After being159 for five, Bihar recovered to 258 without further loss from 95overs at stumps.Winning the toss, Bihar made a poor start when Gagandeep Singh bowledS Vig for one with his first delivery with the total at two in thesecond over. F Khan (22) and Ratan Kumar steadied the innings byadding 48 runs for the second wicket off 9.2 overs. The recoveryprocess was maintained by Ratan Kumar and A Hashmi (43) putting on 75runs for the third wicket from 40.3 overs. Hashmi batted 162 minutes,faced 123 balls and hit seven of them to the ropes. Sanwal whodismissed Hashmi then bowled Manish Kumar for six. Shortly afterwardsT Pratap was leg before wicket to Yuvraj Singh for 15 and Punjab hadwrested the initiative.However Ratan Kumar was playing the sheet anchor role and he now foundan able partner in wicketkeeper Dhoni. While Ratan Kumar stood firm,Dhoni made some bold strokes and dominated the partnership. WhileRatan Kumar took 235 minutes and 193 balls to reach his half century,Dhoni brought up his 50 off 83 balls and in 74 minutes. By stumpsDhoni was unbeaten with 70. He faced 116 balls and hit eleven foursand two sixes. Ratan Kumar by close had faced 285 balls and hit ninefours. For Punjab, Sanwal’s two wickets cost him 90 runs from 27 overswhile Yuvraj, Gagandeep and HK Kali took one wicket each.