J&K’s start to its T20 campaign in Mushtaq Ali trophy started on a dismal note as Parvez Rasool lead team suffered 9-wicket defeat at the hands of Services in the match played at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi on Monday.
After winning the toss, J&K opted to bat first. They just managed to score 128 runs in 20 overs for the loss of ten wickets. In reply Services without any trouble achieved required target for the loss of only one wicket in 16.5 overs. It was lopsided encounter as Services dominated both batting and bowling departments.
Earlier, J&K got off to perfect start with opener Ahmad Banday smashing six off the first ball he faced. However, with only four runs added to the total, Shubham Khajuria lost his wicket with J&K score on 10. Ahmad Banday was second wicket to fall with J&K score on 34. He got out after scoring 20. Then in the middle two experienced batsman Ian Dev and Parvez Rasool tried to resurrect JK inning. They took J&K score past 79 run mark in 10 overs. At that point J&K were in decent position with the hopes of posting a decent total as big hitting batsman were yet to bat. But soon Parvez Rasool was out rest of the batting fell like pack of cards. Ian Dev tried to stay in the middle but couldn’t do much. Ian fell after scoring 47 runs while as Parvez scored 20. Among the other batsman only Bandeep could reach double figures as J&K were bundled out for 128 runs.
After average batting show, one was hoping that bowlers would bring back J&K into the game. However that hope soon disappeared as Services openers went berserk after JK pacers. Though spinners tried to stop flow of runs but lack of wickets and decent total on the board did not help their cause. When pace bowlers were brought back into the attack Services batsmen ripped them apart. Services lost their first wicket on the score of 111 in 16th over. They achieved target in 16.5 overs for the loss of only one wicket. Ravi Chauhan was star for them, playing smashing knock of 86 runs from 58 balls. His inning included 16 boundaries. For J&K lone consolation wicket was taken by Manzoor Dar. From the match Services bagged four points while as J&K got none.