Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 20: Teamwork guided Jammu and Kashmir to a big 9-wicket victory over Manipur in the Mens U-25 State A Trophy at Railway Cricket Stadium, Rajkot today.
Batting first, Manipur bundled out for a paltry total of 92 runs in 37.2 overs. Mohd Mustaque, Th Anand and Sanjit contributed 16, 15 and 13 runs to the total respectively.
For J&K, left-arm spinner Vanshaj Sharma took 3 wickets by conceding 25 runs in 7.5 overs, while Basit Bashir and Lone Nasir Muzaffar bagged 2 wickets each. Teizeem Younus Tak and Kamal Preet Singh also claimed one wicket each.
In reply, J&K chased the target easily in 11.3 overs, losing one wicket in the process, thus won the match by 9 wickets. Opening batter Dikshant Kundal scored magnificent power-packed 56 runs off 42 balls, studded with 6 fours and 4 sixes, while wicketkeeper/batter contributed unbeaten 18 runs to the total. Jiyad Nazir Magray was the only batter to be dismissed for 19 runs. All the three batters hit the ball with fluidity, grace and brilliance, while Dikshant showed stellar grit and tenacity to notch up splendid half-century
For Manipur, Th Anand took the only wicket to fall.
The Sub Committee Members of JKCA including Brig Anil Gupta, Member-Administration; Advocate Sunil Sethi, Member Legal Affairs and Cricketer Mithun Manhas, Member Cricket Operations and Development JKCA congratulated the team for this splendid victory.
The team is being accompanied by former First Class cricketer Sarabjeet Singh as Head Coach, Hilal Rather and Vivek Khajuria as Manager and Co-Manager respectively, Kavaljeet Singh as as Batting Coach, Sameer Ali as Bowling Coach, Guru Partap Singh as Trainer, Sahil Magotra as Performance/ Video Analyst, Dr Chirag Pandya as Physio and Arun as Masseur.