J&K started its campaign in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament on a dismal note as they were handed 43 run defeat by hosts Karnataka at KSCA Cricket Ground Alur on Sunday.
Despite winning the toss and opting to field first J&K were unable to take advantage of the conditions. After restricting Karnataka to a score of 150 runs in allotted overs, J&K itself got bundled out for 107 runs during the chase.
Batting first Karnataka got off to a quick start with openers D Padikal and KK Nair hammering J&K pace duo of Umar Nazir and Ram Dayal. Seeing his pacers getting smashed to all corners, Parvez Rasool brought himself into attack. It turned out as right move as he removed Padikkal with Karnataka score on 37 in 4.5 overs. In his next over Parvez removed RP Kadam, thus reducing hosts to 44 for the loss of two wickets in 6.1 overs. Abid Mushtaq got the prize scalp of Karun Nair in 10th over with score on 55 and it looked like that J&K were in control now.
However that was not the case as hosts went on to score more than 90 runs in last 10 overs to put a total of 150 for the loss of five wickets. KL Shrijith turned out star with the bat for Karnataka scoring unbeaten 48 from mere 31 balls. AA Joshi scored 29 while as Karun Nair scored 27.
For J&K, Parvez Rasool, Auquib Nabi took two wickets each while as Abid Mushtaq took one.
In reply, J&K started its reply with opening pair of debutant Qamran Iqbal and Ahmad Banday. J&K lost first wicket on the score of 25, with Qamran becoming victim of A Mithun. He scored 12 runs. The next wicket to fall was Banday who scored 18 off 12. Prasidh Krishna got him. It left J&K on 35 in 4.3 overs, still needing 115 runs to win from 15.3 overs.
Despite having lost both of its openers J&K were in decent position at this point to overhaul the target. However, what followed puzzled everyone. The batting duo of Shubam Pundir and Shubham Khajuria went into shell and played in Test mode on T20 day. It was perfect setting for Abdul Samad, a T20 sensation from J&K to come and bat but J&K, first sent Pundir and then skipper opted himself to bat ahead of Samad.
Khajuria got out after scoring nine off 12 balls, Pundir scored 20 off 24 while as Parvez failing with bat scored five runs off eight balls. The low strike rate and failure of these three with bat pushed run rate high. Though Abdul Samad did try his hard to salvage the inning but lack of batsmen at other end and high run rate didn’t helped his cause. Samad scored 30 off 27 balls in which he hit two sixes. He was the only batsman in J&K inning to hit a six. J&K got bundled out for 107 runs in 18.4 overs. Prasidh Krishna took three wickets for Karnataka while as Gowtham, Suchith and A Mithun took two each.
Karnataka bagged four points from the match.J&K is scheduled to play its next match on January 12 against Tripura.