Asif Iqbal
Staging a comeback after going down in their first match against Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir Cricket team on Tuesday registered its first win in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, beating Tripura by seven wickets.
Opting to bowl first after winning the toss at KSCA Cricket Ground Alur, Ram Dayal on behalf of J&K dealt two quick blows to Tripura by removing both the opening batsmen when the aggregate score read 17/2.
Middle-order batsman Udiyan Bose, the highest scorer in first innings, made hard fought 28 runs enabling his team to reach 72, however was eventually out, stumped, on the bowling of Abid Mushtaq.
Sankar Paul, the next highest scorer for his team was next to go of the bowling off J&K Skipper Parvez Rasool.
Apart from Bose and Paul no other batsmen from Tripura exhibited much resistance against a buoyant bowling attack of J&K.
Aquib Ali took three wickets even as Ram Dayal and Abid Mushtaq took two wickets apiece. Mujtaba Yousaf, conceding just 8 runs in his four overs picked one wicket besides one scalp by Parvez Rasool.
Off to a jittery start, Jammu and Kashmir lost its opener Ahmad Banday in third over for an individual score of 3 while as the aggregate scorecard read 17. Shubham Khajuria was next to fall for just 2 runs (30/2).
Sensing a slump, Wicket-keeper batsman Suryansh Raina steadied the innings with a fine batting display, scoring 33 runs of just 25 deliveries with five four and a six before falling leg-before wickets’ to Sankar Paul when the scorecard read 56/3.
Shubham Pundir in company of his Skipper Parvez Rasool then took on the job by scoring 21 and 19 runs respectively to see their team through with 31 balls to spare.
The thumping win is likely to up the Net Run Rate of an otherwise bottom of the table team and to help them to make it to play-offs.
Pertinent to mention here that the ongoing tournament (Trophy) is named after Syed Mushtaq Ali, a right-handed opening batsman for (the then un-partitioned) India who holds the distinction of scoring the first overseas Test century by an Indian player, when he scored 112 against England at Old Trafford in the year 1936.
