J&K senior cricket team’s national season started on an unimpressive note as the team suffered 6-wicket defeat against Bengal in the rain affected clash at SSN College Ground, Chennai on Thursday.
Owing to wet outfield due to overnight rain, the match didn’t start on the scheduled time and was curtailed to 25 overs per side. In the bowler-friendly conditions, Bengal won the toss and rightly chose to field first.
Batting first, J&K got-off to a bad start losing opener Ahmad Banday in 2nd over of the inning. It was start of procession with no J&K batsman showing intent to stay in the middle. Even the seasoned campaigners – Parvez Rasool and Irfan Pathan – were unable to stay in the middle and carry the inning forward and the whole team got out for paltry 96 runs in 23.4 overs.
For J&K, pacer Mohammad Mudhasir top scored with 21 runs off 16 balls that included two sixes. Paras Sharma contributed 17 runs while as Fazil Rashid scored 11 runs. For Bengal, Prayas Ray Barman took four wickets while as Ishan Porel took three wickets.
Chasing an easy target, Bengal scored the requisite runs in 20.4 overs losing only four wickets on the way. Openers S Goswami and Vivek Singh put on 34-run stand for the first wicket before Irfan Pathan gave J&K the breakthrough by getting wicket of Vivek Singh. Bengal lost its second wicket at 36 runs when Irfan Pathan got S. Chatterjee run-out, which brought experienced Manoj Tiwary into the middle.
It was Manoj who along with Goswami carried the Bengal innings forward till the score reached 70 runs, at which both the batsmen fell in quick succession at 70 and 76. Maintaining composure, incoming batsmen W Chatterjee and A Majumdar carried Bengal home without any further loss of wickets, both remaining unbeaten on 14. For J&K Irfan, Waseem Raza and Shubham Khajuria took one wicket each.
With this win Bengal earned four points while as J&K failed to get any point. J&K will take on Tripura on Friday in its second match.
SCORE:
J&K: 96/10 (Mudhasir 21, Paras 17, Baramn 4-wkts)
Bengal: 98/4 (Goswamy 22, V Singh 20, Pathan 1-wkt, Raza 1-wkt)