Excelsior Sports Correspondent
KOLKATA, Feb 28: A splendid 6-wicket haul by Mohd Mudhasir and superb half-centuries by skipper Parvez Rasool and wicketkeeper Punit Bisht went in vain as Chhattisgarh, which is playing in their debut season, registered a thrilling 4-run win over Jammu and Kashmir in Vijay Hazare Group D match, here today.
Earlier, put into bat on a surface that assisted seamers, Chhattisgarh made a poor start and lost 3 import wickets in first 15 overs at a score of 45 runs as J&K’s medium pacer Mudhasir wrecked havoc. However, Chhattisgarh, despite the failure of their skipper and former Test cricket Mohd Kaif, rode on brilliant knocks by Abhimanyu Chauhan and Amandeep Khare to score a decent 235/9 in 50 overs. Abhimanyu top scored with magnificent 90 runs off 89 balls, studded with 9 fours and one six, while Khare contributed patient but valuable 57 runs off 83 balls with the help of 7 boundaries. Ashutosh (31) and Manoj Singh (21) were the other contributors. For J&K, Mohd Mudhasir was the wrecker-in-chief, who scalped 6 important wickets including a hat-trick by conceding 33 runs in his 10 overs, while Umar Nazir and Manzoor Dar claimed one wicket each.
In reply, J&K also lost early wickets and were struggling at 48/4 in 12.5 overs, when Punit Bisht joined his skipper Parvez Rasool at the crease. The duo took the score to 109, when Rasool was dismissed for 51 off 52 balls with the help of 9 boundaries. Then Bisht (68) alongwith brief but good contributions from Manzoor Dar (19 off 17) and Ramdayal (24 off 23) took the team almost to home, but lack of application, game attitude and grit shown by even experienced players when it mattered the most in crunch situation, made the team to suffer a humiliating 4-run loss. Pankaj Rao was the pick of the bowlers for Chhattisgarh, who scalped 4 important wickets, while Sumit Ruikar took 2 wickets. Shubham Agarwal, Amandeep Khare, Ashutosh and Sahil Gupta claimed one wicket each.
Follow our WhatsApp channel