Rohtak: Devastating bowling by medium pacer Joginder Sharma helped Haryana to beat Himachal Pradesh by an innings and 21 runs on the second day of the Vijay Merchant cricket tournament here on Monday.

Batting first after winning the toss, Himachal Pradesh was in deep trouble from the very start of the innings. Opener Subash was bowled by skipper Joginder Sharma when the batsman had scored only one run. His opening partner Ramnik was also dismissed cheaply. He could score only 10 runs. Only Pankaj Thakur who batted three hours played a defiant knock of 44 in 134 balls. The innings folded at 115. Joginder Sharma bagged 6 wickets for 38 runs.

Haryana also started in the same fashion losing opener Kuldeep Diwan for a duck. At 61, Haryana had lost five wickets at draw of stumps on the opening day. But Haryana's lower order batsmen fought back on the second day to carry the total to 215. Dharmender contributed 46 with the help of seven boundaries whereas skipper Joginder Sharma scored 35. Haryana gained a lead of 100 runs. For Himachal Pradesh, Sachin Rana and Pankaj Thakur took 4 and 3 wickets respectively.

The Himachal batsmen surrendered without resistence in the second knock. It was Joginder Sharma once again who spread havoc right from the word go. He struck in the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 9th overs of the innings to have the visitors reeling at 12 for 4. The innings folded at 79. Joginder captured 6 wickets at the cost of 29 runs while Kuldeep Diwan bagged 4 for 13.

Haryana gained 8 points from this match to take the tally of points to 22 after playing all the four matches. They have qualified for the knock out stage. Himachal Pradesh, who did not get any point from this match, have five points from two matches.

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