J&K suffered a shock defeat after being on driver’s seat for most of its Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 clash as Delhi cruised to four wicket win in a final over thrilling finish at Chukkapalli Pitchaiah Cricket Ground, Mulapadu, Andhra Pradesh on Sunday.
J&K after posting its highest ever T20 total of 189 runs on board had restricted Delhi to 147 for the loss of six wickets. Delhi needed 43 runs of last three overs with only four wickets in hand. It looked like J&K will win its first ever T20 matches against Delhi. However, that was not the case as Lalit Yadav and Pawan Negi hammered J&K bowlers to take Delhi home.
Earlier batting first J&K went on to post 189 runs for the loss of seven wickets in allotted 20 overs. J&K got off to bad start losing two wickets on the score of 14 runs in 2.4 overs. Abdul Samad got run out after scoring eight runs while as Shubham Khajuria got out for naught. In middle opener Jatin Wadhwan was joined another youngster Shubham Pundir. The duo formed 84 run stand for the third wicket taking J&K total to 98 runs in 11.3 overs. Wadhwan was third wicket to fall in inning after scoring another knock of 57 runs from 33 deliveries. J&K once again promoted hard hitting batsman Manzoor Pandav to up the scoring rate. However, this time he failed getting out for five runs from eight balls. In middle then Pundir was joined by Parvez Rasool. Skipper looked in deft touch, scoring 17 runs from mere seven balls before getting out. Before getting out he along with Pundir took score to 158 run mark. His fall brought Irfan Pathan in the middle and the experienced all-rounder once again looked in great touch with bat. Pundir was next wicket to fall after scoring 68 runs from 44 balls. The next in batsman, Suryansh Raina got out for only one run. Irfan Pathan’s unbeaten knock of 26 runs from 13 balls carried J&K to 189 run total in allotted 20 overs. For Delhi, Subodh Bhati took three wickets while as Pawan Negi, Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini took one wicket each.
In reply, Delhi got off to a flying start with openers Unmukt Chandh and Hiten Dalal scoring 41 runs from mere 2.4 overs. In the fifth delivery of third over Waseem Raza got wicket of Dalal and on the very next delivery Chandh got run out to leave Delhi on 41 for the loss of two wickets in three overs. After that J&K kept picking wickets at regular intervals but Delhi also kept scoring rate in check. Among all the carnage with almost all the J&K bowler’s going for plenty of runs, skipper Parvez Rasool finished his four over spell. He went wicket less but gave only 17 runs with run rate of 4.25 runs per over.
In last two overs Delhi needed 30 runs to win match. First Irfan Pathan gave away 17 runs in 19th over reducing the target to 13 in last over. Bowling last over Manzoor Pandav conceded that in only in five deliveries. Delhi won by four wickets with one delivery in spare.
Lalit Yadav with match winning unbeaten knock of 47 runs from 28 balls was highest scorer for them while as Anuj Rawat scored 45. Pawan Negi remained not out on 15 from seven balls. For J&K Irfan Pathan, Rasikh Salam, Waseem Raza and Mujtaba Yusuf took one wicket each but they were all expensive. Rasikh gave 52 runs in his four over quota while as Raza gave 35 runs in three overs. Pathan gave 38 runs in his four over spell while as Mujtaba gave 33 in four overs.
J&K now have played three matches in the event and in which it has suffered two defeats and able to win one. They will next face Andhra Pradesh on Monday.