Punjab batsmen piled the misery on Kerala as they amassed a huge first inning score of 541-7 before play was called off four minutes to tea due to rain on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A league match at Fort Maidan on Saturday in Palakkad.

Resuming at 305 for 2, the Punjab batsmen added 236 runs in 226 minutes play and lost five more wickets in the process.

Dinesh Mongia, who is looking for a come back in the Indian squad, added 36 runs to his overnight score of 115. He was clean bowled by John Grand Bell. Mongia's innings was studded with 22 fours off 228 balls in his 272 minutes stay.

Chandan Madan (67) and Reetinder Singh Sodhi (57) were the other main contributors for Punjab.

Kerala Vice Captain Sreekumar Nair claimed three wickets conceding 110 runs and Grand Bell claimed 2 for 64.

Scorecard:

Punjab first Innings:
Ravneet Ricky c Grand Bell b Nair              125
Samrat Sharma c C M Deepak b Nair         38
Dinesh Mongia b Grand Bell                        151
Pankaj Dharmani c Deepak b Grand Bell       30
Reetinder Singh Sodhi b Suresh Kumar          57
Chandan Madaan run out                              67
Amit Uniyal st Deepak b Nair                         9
Sandeep Sawal batting                                  12
Navdeep Singh batting                                    3   

Extras: (B 12, LB 5, WB 3, NB 29)                49

Total: (for 7 wickets in 153 overs)             541

Fall of wickets: 1/119, 2/300, 3/361, 4/386, 5/501, 6/518, 7/530.

Bowling: Tinu Yohannan 29-1-105-0; Grand Bell 15-1-64-2; Sunil Oasis 14-2-53-0; Suresh Kumar 27-2-101-1; Ananthapadmanabhan 22-3-91-0; Sreekumar Nair 46-14-110-3.

Day 1 Report