Rajesh Dhar
JAMMU, Feb 12: The management of Jammu and Kashmir State cricket team which is on tour to Hyderabad in connection with prestigious Vijay Hazare One Day Cricket Tournament, received a severe setback as they were forced to make four changes in a crucial match against Hyderabad because of in-availability of some players, who had to represent their departmental team in cricket tourney, leaving the management in the lurch.
Jammu and Kashmir had to play their fifth match of the tournament against Hyderabad today without the services of talented quartet including the speedsters Ramdayal Punia and Mohd Mudhasir, promising middle-order batsman Bandeep Singh and gutsy left-arm spinner Waseem Raza, who are the employees of the Accountant General’s Office J&K and had to join their department for departmental tournament.
All the four players were instrumental in helping Jammu and Kashmir to register convincing victories over strong Saurashtra and Services, with narrow loses against balanced Chhattisgarh and formidable Vidarbha and had enabled it to be in hunt for the quarterfinal stage.
J&K would have been strong contender for the quarterfinal berth had it won today’s tie against Hyderabad, which was hardly possible after the management was forced to make many changes to a winning combination, which had played as a cohesive unit throughout the tournament so far.
Now, was the State more important for the players or the department, is a million dollar question?
No-doubt, the department had appointed these cricketers on sporting background with an aim to give fillip to sports in the department, yet one gets a feeling that at this juncture, the State should have been given priority over the department, because qualifying for the knockout stage among top teams in the country in such a big tournament is an outstanding achievement.
But here, the department won over the State. Such things often happen in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
The experts hope that the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), in future, should keep all such things in mind before constituting State teams for representing it at the National scene.
Meanwhile, at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad, J&K suffered a heavy thrashing by 149 runs against Hyderabad.
Batting first, Hyderabad rode on Rohit Rayudu’s 130 and BP Sandeep’s 72 to score a big total of 312 runs. For J&K, speedster Umar Nazir was the pick of the bowlers, who took 5 important wickets by conceding 52 runs in his 10 overs. In reply, Jammu and Kashmir bundled out for paltry 163 runs in 34.1 overs. Debutant Puneet Kumar top scored with 43 runs, while Shubham Khajuria, Ahmad Omar Banday and Shubham Singh Pundir contributed 35, 26 and 20 runs to the total respectively. Akash Bhandari 3/34 was the most successful bowler for Hyderabad.
In another match played today, a resurgent Saurashtra steamrolled Services by eight wickets to keep their quarterfinal hopes alive in the tournament.
Buoyed by their big win over Jharkhand yesterday, Saurashtra bundled out Services for 176 in 48.2 overs before knocking off the small chase in 21.4 overs.
Samarth Vyas cracked an unbeaten 114 from 66 balls, studded with 12 fours and eight sixes.
Skipper Cheteshwar Pujara gave fine support at the other end with a 39-ball 45 not out (3×4, 3×6) as the duo stitched an unbroken 143-run partnership after Saurashtra lost two wickets inside eight overs.
The partnership came off just 86 balls to give a huge boost to their net run-rate (0.854) as Saurashtra (0.854) jumped past Hyderabad (-0.197) to third place despite both having 12 points each.
Saurashtra now take on leaders Vidarbha (16 points) in their crucial final group league match on February 14.
Earlier left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja returned with figures of 4/26, while pace duo of Jaydev Unadkat and Shaurya Sanandia claimed two wickets each as Services failed to get going after winning the toss at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad. Opener Soumik Chatterjee was the top-scorer with 52.
In yet another contest, Chhattisgarh jumped to second place in the standings with a seven-wicket win over Jharkhand at the AOC Centre Thapar Stadium in Secunderabad.
Saurabh Tiwary smashed a 105-ball 107 (8×4, 3×6) as Jharkhand scored 288/9 after being put in. But Tiwary’s effort went in vain as Chhattisgarh came up with a solid batting show to chase down the target with four overs to spare.
Three Chhattisgarh batsmen came up with half-centuries — Amandeep Khare (76), Shashank Chandraker (61) and Manoj Singh (54 not out) — while Vishal Kushwah remained unbeaten on 40 as they romped home without any fuss.
Hyderabad also remained among contention after crushing Jammu and Kashmir by 149 runs.
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