The stage is set for a keen battle for the all important first innings lead in the Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) final. At stumps on the second day of the three day match at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur, Punjab were 108 for one in reply to Bihar's first innings total of 357.

Resuming at 254 for five overnight, Bihar did well to add another 103 runs. The overnight batsmen, opener Ratan Kumar and MS Dhoni carried on till the total was 274. The retreiving sixth wicket partnership had added 115 runs from 41 overs when Dhoni was caught by Sodhi off Uniyal for 84. Dhoni batted 2-1/2 hours, faced 137 balls and hit 14 fours and two sixes.

Vikash Kumar joined Ratan Kumar who proceeded cautiously towards the three figure mark. But when one short of it, he gave Sanwal a return catch. It was a sad end to an innings which lasted 473 minutes. The opener, who was seventh out at 314, had faced 361 balls and hit only 12 of them to the ropes. The partnership had put on 40 runs off 16 overs.

Vikash Kumar, along with the tail kept the score moving until he was last out for 52. He batted 160 minutes, faced 120 balls and hit six boundaries. Last man A Yadav, with whom Vikash added 29 runs off 16.3 overs batted 55 minutes and faced 53 balls without opening his account. Sanwal sent down 40.3 overs and was rewarded with four wickets for 115 runs.

When Punjab batted, openers Manish Sharma and RS Ricky (33) gave them a sound start putting on 60 runs from 29.2 overs. Ricky, who faced 84 balls and hit five fours was bowled by Satendra Mishra. Manish and skipper Yuvraj Singh were batting at stumps with 45 and 26 respectively. Manish has so far played 152 balls and hit eight fours while the more aggressive Yuvraj has faced 42 balls and hit three of them to the fence. The two have so far added 48 runs from 16.4 overs.

© CricInfo