Good knocks by Irfan Pathan and Parvez Rasool followed by scintillating spell by pacer Mohammad Mudhasir who rattled Uttar Pradesh top order, made it host J&K’s day on the first day of Ranji Trophy match that started at Govt. Gandhi Memorial Science College ground, Jammu on Thursday.
At the end of the first day’s play, Uttar Pradesh were 31 with three wickets down in response to J&K’s first inning total of 290 runs. They trail by 259 runs with seven wickets in hand.
It was a good batting show by J&K’s mentor-cum-player Irfan Pathan (91) that helped them to a decent total of 290 runs in first inning. Pathan missed his century by nine runs while trying to push the scoring quickly. He added 71 runs with last wicket Akash Chowdary after J&K were reduced to 219 runs with nine wickets down. Starting cautiously, Pathan was in devastating touch in a 71 run stand with Akash as he scored 91 off mere 76 balls. He went on speed mode soon after completing his 53 off 55 balls, adding another 38 runs for only 21 runs including four consecutive sixes of Saurabh Kumar. In his knock Pathan hit five sixes and 10 boundaries.
Earlier Uttar Pradesh won the toss and chose to field first. The decision seemed right as J&K went on to lose three wickets for the score of 52 runs in 20.3 overs. Shubham Khajuria was first wicket to fall scoring 19, Ahmad Banday next scoring 10 and Paras Sharma third wicket to fall scoring only six.
The duo of Parvez Rasool and Ian Dev Singh stabilized the innings and took score past 150 run mark. Ian Dev was the fourth wicket to fall at individual score of 49, with 154 runs on board for J&K. Pathan joined J&K skipper in the middle and the duo could added only 33 runs together as Parvez got out, trapped lbw by Saurabh Kumar on the score of 87 off 92 balls.
The next in batsman Fazil Rashid got out for a duck while as Waseem Raza for one. J&K went from 187 for four to 189 for seven. It was at that point that Pathan took charge in the middle. He first tried to form stand with Umar Nazir and then Mohammad Mudhasir but both departed soonleaving J&K on 219 for the loss of nine wickets.
Irfan put up an important stand of 71 run with last wicket Akash Chowdary and carried total to 290 runs. For Uttar Pradesh, Saurabh Kumar took 6-wicket haul while as Imtiaz Ahmad and Yash Dayal took two wickets each.
At the end of first day’s play, hosts were leading by 259 runs with seven wickets in hand. Mohammad Mudhasir rattled the top order of the visitors. He picked the wickets of Mohammad Saif, Druv Partap Singh and Priyam Garg. Opener Madhav Kaushik is still in the middle batting on 11 along with experienced Aksh Deep Nath.
Uttar Pradesh has got depth in their batting with international star Suresh Raina yet to arrive in the middle.
It is not going to be cakewalk for J&K on second day and they would be made to work hard.
BRIE SCORES:
J&K: 290/10 (Pathan 91, Parvez 87 Ian Dev 49, Saurabh Kumar 6-wkts)
UP: 31/3 (Madhav 11*, Saif 6, Mudhasir 3-wkts) trail by 259 runs.