Vijay Hazare Trophy
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 12: Teamwork helped Jammu and Kashmir to create history by defeating formidable Madhya Pradesh in a close contest by 2 wickets in a high scoring game of Vijay Hazare One-Day Trophy at DY Patil Cricket Stadium, Mumbai today.
Earlier, put into bat, Madhya Pradesh scored a big total of 342 runs in the stipulated 50 overs, losing 9 wickets in the process. Opening batter Yash Dubey top scored with 121 runs off equal number of balls, studded with 13 boundaries, while Abhishek Bhandari contributed 74 off 81 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes. Dangerous Rajat Patidar scored power-packed 62 off 45 balls, studded with 4 fours and 3 sixes, while Akshat Raghuwanshi also contributed 32 runs to the total.
For J&K, medium pacers Shahrukh Ahmed Dar and Auqib Nabi took 3 wickets each, while left-arm Abid Mushtaq bagged 2 wickets.
In reply, J&K rode on good contributions by Vivrant Sharma, Henan Malik, Abdul Samad and Abid Mushtaq to script victory in a close contest by 2 wickets. Vivrant top scored with 69 off 62 balls including 8 fours and 2 sixes, while Henan contributed 68 off 73 balls studded with 4 fours and 2 sixes. Explosive Abdul Samad scored magnificent 66 off 62 balls with 7 boundaries and 2 sixes, while Abid Mushtaq contributed brisk 19-ball 42 runs including 3 fours and 3 sixes. Later in the innings, Sahil Lotra (23*), Yudhvir Singh (18), Fazil Rashid (13) and Auqib Nabi unbeaten (11) contributed to the winning cause.
For MP, Avesh Khan captured 3 wickets, while Saransh Jain bagged 2 wickets. Kuldeep Sen, Ashwin Das and Shubham Sharma claimed one wicket each.
J&K will take on Baroda in the next outing tomorrow.
The Sub Committee Members of JKCA congratulated the team for this splendid victory.
The team is being accompanied by former International cricketer Ajay Sharma as coach, Rajan Singh and Sandeep Singh as Manager and Co-Manager respectively, Tanmay Srivastava as Fielding Coach, Sunny Kumar as Trainer, Danish Idrees as Performance Analyst, Jatinder Gupta as Phisio and Naresh as Masseur.