The all-round J&K senior cricket team defeated hosts Andhra by five wickets in the match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament at Devineni Venkata Ramana Praneetha Ground, Mulapadu, Andhra on Monday.
It was quality bowling that restricted Andhra to 146 run total followed by a mature inning of 51 runs for youngster Shubham Pundir and valuable contributions by Parvez Rasool 33 and Abdul Samad 30 that helped J&K beat Andhra by five wickets. The match was broadcast live on television and digital platform.
Earlier won the toss and chose to field first. Batting first Andhra got off to a bad start with opener Ashwin Hebbar getting out without troubling score board. He got run out. GH Vihari and Ricky Bhui tried to resurrect the inning but the senior pacer Ram Dayal who joined J&K after long gap got the wicket of Ricky on the score of 25. Vihari at other end carried on but became second wicket Dayal. He got out after scoring 25. Andhra lost another wicket quickly leaving team four wicket down on the score of 46 after 7.1 overs. Parvez trapped DB Kumar LBW.
At that moment J&K bowlers were all over Andhra and it looked like that they would hardly cross 100 run mark. However, KS Bharat and Ravi Teja joined together in the middle thwarted all J&K moves. They were able to take total to 103 runs in 16 overs. Bharat was first to go on the score of 103 runs. He was taken by Mujtaba Yusuf after scoring 41 run knock. Teja got out after scoring 22, leaving Andhra on 112 runs in 17.1 overs.
Karan Sharma and G Reddy played valuable cameos at the end of the inning for Andhra taking score to 146 runs. Reddy was last man run out on the last ball of the inning. He scored 15 from eight balls while as Sharma remained not out on 22 from 14 balls.
In reply J&K, lost first wicket on the score of 18 runs. Inform batsman Jatin Wadhwan was wicket to fall scoring only 14. That brought Adil Reshi in the middle who was playing his first match in the tournament. Abdul Samad who was batting at the other end took attack to ooposition scoring some brilliant strokes in the process. J&K’s 50 runs came in 6.4 balls with Samad being main contributor.
Reshi was second wicket to fall on the score of 50. He made only eight while as Samad soon followed on the score of 59 runs in 8.2 overs. Before getting out Samad had scored 30 from 25 balls.
The fall of two quick wickets brought Shubham Pundir and Parvez Rasool in the middle. The duo combined to form a 77 run stand together which turned a match winning partnership. They took J&K score from 59 runs to 136 in 17.2 overs. On the very same score both batsman got out. Pundir scored 51 from 36 balls while as Parvez scored 31 from 22 balls. When they got out J&K needed 11 runs to win from 16 balls. Manzoor Pandav completed the formalities along with Irfan Pathan. Pandav scored 10 while as Pathan two to take J&K home.
It was J&K’s second win in the tournament. J&K also suffered two defeats in the process. After playing four matches J&K now have got eight points and stand at fourth place in the table.