The slump for J&K cricket team continued as it suffered 5th consecutive defeat in the ongoing Vijay Hazare trophy tournament, this time outplayed by Gujarat, as the team lost to Gujarat by eight wickets at IIT Chemplast, Chennai on Sunday. J&K got bundled-out for 123 runs in their inning and it took Gujarat 21.1 overs to achieve the target, losing only 2 wickets on the way.
It was yet another batting failure as J&K batting collapsed midway from 106 for the loss of four wickets to 123 all-out within a space of nine overs.
In the middle of the inning, J&K at 106 runs for the loss of four wickets looked poised to post a respectable table, but a run-out triggered the collapse and J&K lost the next six wickets in 9 overs, adding only 17 runs to the total. Once again the team failed to play the full quota of 50 overs, putting serious question mark on the ability of the players to play 50-over format cricket at the national arena.
Earlier, J&K won the toss and opted to bat first. The team lost opener Ahmad Banday for a duck with 3 runs on the board. Banday, who has scored 52 runs in 5 matches now, continued his poor form after failing to get into double figures against Jarkhand in the previous match. In the second over of the inning, opener Irfan Pathan was joined by Shubham Khajuria and the duo played well to take J&K total to 40 runs in just eight overs at an average of 5 runs per over. Khajuria was particularly aggressive scoring 27 off 24 balls before getting out in the 8th over. Khajuria was unlucky to be dismissed hit wicket. With 2 wickets down for 40 runs, Irfan was joined by Ian Dev Singh and the pair carried J&K total to 73 runs in 15 overs.
J&K lost 2 quick wickets in the 16th over as Irfan Pathan on individual score of 22 runs was trapped LBW by Hardik Patel on the 3rd ball of the over. New batsman Pranav Gupta lasted only one ball as he was also trapped LBW in the same over. The fall of two back-to-back wickets in the same over left J&K reeling on 73 for the loss of four wickets in 16 overs.
Skipper Parvez Rasool joined Ian Dev Singh in the middle and the duo took J&K total past 100 run mark in 23.5 overs. Having added 33 valuable runs to the scoredboard, J&K looked well set to post a decent total on board with both Parvez and Ian Dev going well. However, a run out of Ian Dev triggered collapse that eventually lead to J&K bundling out for 123 runs in 34 overs. Ian Dev got run out after scoring 35 and was soon followed by Shubham Pundir and Fazil Rashid who scored one and two runs respectively. Parvez Rasool was the 8th wicket to fall after scoring 20 runs, with team total on 114 runs.
Hard-hitting tail-ender Mohammad Mudhasir failed to replicate his cameo as he got out after scoring three runs. Bowler Umar Nazir was the last man to get out for a duck. For Gujrat, it was spin duo of Piyush Chawla and Hardik Patel wrecked havoc with the J&K inning. Piyush took three wickets while as Hardik took two. C.T. Gaja and Hemang Patel also took two wickets each.
Chasing small total of 124 required at 2.48 runs per over, Gujarat batsman were never in trouble as they chased target only in 21.1 overs losing only 2 wickets on the way to the win. Gujrat openers Parthiv Patel and P Panchal put on an opening partnership of 50 runs in 8.4 overs before Skipper Parthiv Patel fell on his score of 24 runs in the 9th over of the inning on the bowling of J&K pacer Umar Nazir. 2nd wicket fell on the score of 94 with Waseem Raza picking PK Panchal who was batting on 49. Next batsman BH Maria who remained not out on 43 from 35 balls ensured his team reach the target without any further loss of wickets. With this win, Gujarat team is ranked 3rd in Elite, Group C with 18 points in 6 matches. J&K having played 5 matches are ranked 9th on the points table and are yet to open their account.
It is the fifth consecutive defeat in the tournament for J&K as they had earlier gone down to Bengal, Tripura, Haryana and Jharkhand. J&K will next play Services on October 1st.
BRIEF SCORES:
J&K: 123/10 (Ian Dev 35, Khajuria 27, Pathan 22, Chawla 3-wkts)
Gujarat: 127/2 (Panchal 49, Maria 43, Nazir 1-wkt)
