An unbeaten triple century by middle-order batsman Taruwar Kohli and his unbeaten 264-run fourth wicket partnership with Udai Kaul (not out 113) led Punjab sail into the semi-final stage of the Ranji Trophy tournament.
They emerged victorious by virtue of first innings lead of 298 runs against Jharkhand on the final-day of the five-day Ranji quarter-final match at Keenan stadium here on Thursday.
Jharkhand, who had scored 401 all out in their first innings, were 33 for no loss off 13 overs in their second essay after Punjab declared their first innings for 699 for three at the stroke of tea.
Resuming at their overnight score of 435 for three, Punjab’s unbeaten batsman Taruwar Kohli (who was on 151 at stumps on the fourth day) and Udai Kaul, who stepped in at the dismissal of Mandeep Singh, who made 96 studded with 12 fours when the stumps were drawn on Day-IV, made mockery of Jharkhand bowling attack and scored runs at will.
The duo were paired for 264-run fourth wicket partnership before the Punjab skipper Harbhajan Singh decided to declared the innings.
Kohli, who made a come back into the Punjab team after two years, faced 609-delivery to score unbeaten 300 studded with 34 boundaries and two sixes while Kaul’s unbeaten 113 run included nine hits to the fence off 216 balls.
Jharkhand made 33 for no loss off 13 overs with openers Ajay Verma scoring 14 not out and Manish Vardhan made unbeaten 19 in their second innings before the match ended.
Punjab would face the winner of the other quarter-final match, being played between Saurashtra-Karnataka at Rajkot, in the semi-final.
