A 5-wicket haul by skipper Parvez Rasool and a fighting knock of 93 runs by Paras Sharma were not enough to change the fortune, as J&K suffered humiliating sixth consecutive defeat in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament. The team lost to Services by 102 runs at Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Chennai on Monday.
Having got their backs against wall with five consecutive defeats already, J&K went into the match with five changes. Ahmad Banday, Fazil Rashid, Waseem Raza, Shubham Pundir and Pranav Gupta were replaced by Paras Sharma, Manzoor Dar, Amir Aziz, Manik Gupta and Asif Khan.It was the last resort for J&K team management to see a seizure to the losing streak. However, even the wholesale changes in the team did not work and J&K went down against Services to continue the losing streak.
J&K won the toss and opted to ball first. J&K got an early breakthrough as pacer Mohammad Mudhasir picked the first wicket of opener Ravi Chauhan in the 8th over of the inning with 23 runs on the board. Parvez Rasool having struggled so far in the event, joined the act by giving double blow to Services in the 14th over of the inning, reducing Services to 55 for the loss of three wickets. J&K looked in command and needed to seize the initiative by wrapping the inning. However, the pair of skipper Rajat Paliwal and Nakul Sharma thwarted all the plans of J&K as the duo put on 150-run stand for the team. Irfan Pathan finally broke the partnership as he trapped Paliwal LBW at individual score of 63 runs. Nakul continued to hammer J&K bowlers and completed his 84-ball ton in 42nd over. He was the fourth victim of Parvez scoring 123 runs off 98 balls that included 6 sixes and nine boundaries. Parvez removed Nitin Tanwar very next ball to complete his 5-wicket haul. Services failed to play the full quota of 50 overs as Umar Nazir and Mudhasir wrapped up the tail quickly, with 322 runs on board in 49 overs.
Facing a daunting task of scoring at required run rate of 6.46 per over, J&K needed a decent opening partnership to give the team a chance to win. However, it was another ordinary batting performance by opener Irfan Pathan as he got out in the 3rd over of the inning at individual score of 6 runs. Big-hitting Manzoor Dar (Pandav) was promoted up the order to accelerate the scoring rate, but the experiment did not work for J&K. Firstly, he got involved in the run out of Shubham Khajuria in the 4th over with only 6 runs having been added to the board and then he was trapped LBW by Services bowler AP Sharma, scoring only 16 runs in 22 balls. As J&K was struggling at 47 for the loss of 4 wickets at the end of 11th over, Parvez Rasool joined Paras Sharma in the middle and the duo stabilized the inning to a significant extent piling-up a steady partnership of 55 runs before Parvez lost his wicket on the individual score of 28 runs.
Big-hitting pacer Mohammad Mudhasir who was promoted up the order, played another entertaining cameo of 30 runs in 14 balls including 3 sixes and 2 fours before losing his wicket. Manik Gupta was eighth wicket to fall in J&K inning after scoring seven runs while as Amir Aziz ninth scoring nine runs. Paras Sharma missed the well-deserved century he was the batsman out, trapped LBW by D Pathania on 93 runs off 97 balls including 10 boundaries and a six. J&K got all out for 220 in 42.2 overs, suffering a 102-run defeat at the hands of Services, 6th in a row.
Brief Scores:
Services: 322/10
(Nakul 123, Paliwal 63, Parvez Rasool 5-wkts)
J&K: 220/10 (Paras 93, Mudhasir 30, Parvez 28, Sharma 4-wkts)