Hosts Rajasthan on Thursday punished the Jammu and Kashmir on the first day of the Rajni trophy match at SawaiMansingh Stadium Jaipur. Rajashtan ended the day with 300 for the loss of three wickets.
J&K opened their Ranji trophy campaign of 2018-19 season against hosts Rajasthan but the start to the season didn't go as expected.
Despite winning the toss and opting to field first, Rajasthan punished the J&K bowlers. ChetanBist was unbeaten on 146 runs while as Ashok Maneria was batting on 45 when the play ended. For J&K, Umar Nazir took two wickets while ParvezRasool got one.
Decision of the Jammu and Kashmir team to bat first backfired as hosts got a solid start. Rajasthan lost first wicket on the score of 61 as AV Gautam, who scored 25, was trapped LBW by ParvezRasool. However, C Bist played sheet anchor's role. After the fall of first wicket C Bist along with M K Lomrar took the score to 127 runs. Umar Nazir took the wicket of Lomrar, who got out after scoring 24. The fall of Lomrar brought Robin Bist in the middle. The double Bist combination formed another decent stand for Rajasthan. Robin Bist got out after scoring 39 runs. He was taken by Umar Nazir. The double Bist stand was 87 runs put Rajashtan on top.
PATHAN'S LONGEVITY IN QUESTION
The fitness and longevity of IrfanPathan who is player-cum-mentor of J&K team would be in focus during the Ranji trophy matches which are of four-day duration.
The questions about Irfan's fitness have been raised every now and then in J&K cricket circles and in longer format of the game they would be tested to its full. On Thursday, during first day's play against Rajasthan, Irfan opened the bowling for J&K and went on to bowl only 13 overs during whole day.
In comparison, veteran pacer of J&K, Muhammad Mudhasir bowled 23 overs while as another pacer Umar Nazir bowled 19. Rohit Sharma the fourth pacer in the team bowled only thirteen and was expensive. ParvezRasool ended day after bowling 19 overs.
However, it is the bowling performance and longevity of IrfanPathan that were in focus during whole day. He opted to bowl with new ball and that meant he should have done bulk of the bowling. However, he ended with only 13. It is learnt that in Vijay Hazare one Day campaign, he used to take intermittent breaks during play.
"He is the star player in the side and he should lead from the front and take responsibility. He should not only bowl when bowl is new. If he is not fit enough he should take a break and give another player a chance. This is longer format of game and needs highest level of fitness and Pathan has not prove his fitness as a player ," said a former player.
