Youngsters Mujtaba Yousuf and Abdul Samad played brilliantly as J&K stunned star studded Uttar Pradesh by eight wickets in the match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament at Alur Cricket Stadium in Benguluru on Thursday.
Reports said after MujtabaYousuf set the tone for J&K by his bowling , Abdul Samad promoted up the order, finished the job by his power hitting to hand J&K a eight wicket win. Uttar Pradesh were able to score 124 runs in allotted 20 overs for the loss of five wickets. In reply J&K achieved target for the loss of only two wickets in 15 overs.
Earlier, J&K won the toss and opted to field first. The decision proved right as Mujtaba gave Uttar Pradesh back to back blows in second over of the inning. He removed Karan Sharma and Suresh Raina within space of three deliveries. Raina couldn’t even open his account and was out for a duck. It was much needed momentum for J&K as it never allowed Uttar Pradesh to get into the rhythm for a big total. UP team was able to post 124 run total for the loss of five wickets in allotted overs. For UP, skipper PriyamGarg top scored with 35 while ShubhamChaubey scored 28 and Madhav scored 26. For J&K, Mujtaba was brilliant with the ball, taking three wickets in four over spell giving away only 14 runs. AbidMushtaq and Abdul Samad took one wicket each.
In reply, J&K started the inning with new opening pair of QamranIqbal and SuryanshRaina. The duo gave J&K steady start by posting opening stand of 32 runs in four overs. Qamran was first wicket to fall in J&K inning scoring 17 runs.
Samad smacked quick unbeaten fifty to take J&K home with five overs to spare. Initially he took his time but when ShanuSaini was introduced into the attack, Samad smashed three sixes of him. It gave J&K much needed momentum to overhaul the total quickly. ShubhamKhajuria who had joined Samad in middle after the fall of SuryanshRaina also started to play his shots.
The duo helped J&K achieve target in 15 overs for the loss of two wickets. Samad scored winning run by smashing a big six and completed his fifty as well. He finished with 54 from 35 deliveries while as ShubhamKhajuria scored unbeaten 34 from 25. For UP, Mohsin Khan took two wickets.
J&K bagged four points from the match and jumped to second place on the points table. Punjab stand at top with 12 points while as Karnataka and Railways stand at third and fourth place respectively with eight points each. J&K also have eight points but with now better run rate stand at second place. Tripura and UP stand at fifth and sixth place respectively and are yet to win any match.
J&K is scheduled to play its next match against Punjab on Janaury 16.