J&K in sight of outright victory as Ramdayal wreaks havoc

Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 19: After scalping a magnificent 5-wicket haul in the first innings, speedster Ramdayal Punia wrecked havoc, taking 5 important wickets in Haryana’s second essay as J&K were in sight of an outright victory in the last Group-B Ranji Trophy league match at Lahli in Haryana aiming to end the season on a winning note.
Ramdayal ably supported by Mohammad Mudhasir was right on target from the word go, troubling the rival batsmen with his nagging line and teasing length along with the bounce he purchased from fast bowling friendly strip.
Earlier, resuming from an overnight total of 175/7, J&K failed to gain a first innings lead as they added just 1 run to bundle out at 176 runs, helping Haryana’s cause of gaining narrow 8-run first innings lead. Ahmed Bandey (67), Puneet Bisht (35), Owais Shah (28) and skipper Parvez Rasool (24) were the main scorers. For Haryana, Ashish Hooda and Ajit Chahal took 3 wickets each, while Harshal Patel claimed 2 wickets.
In their second innings, Haryana were 161/9 when the stumps were drawn today, having a total lead of 169 runs with one wicket in hand.
Ajit Chahal (11) and Ashish Hooda (2) were at the crease at the draw of stumps on day-3. Rajat Paliwal was the top scorer from Haryana, scoring 45 runs off 144 balls, while Guntashveer Singh contributed 33 runs off 116 balls. From J&K, Ramdayal bowled 26 overs with 10 maidens and took 5 important wickets by conceding 42 runs, while Mudhasir took 2 wickets by giving away 28 runs off his 26 overs with 14 maidens. Amir Aziz also claimed one wicket.
Though, chasing a low total on the last day will not be a cake walk for the visitors, yet one gets a feeling that J&K will enjoy an edge to surpass the total as spinners have not done much damage so far on this surface. Tackling pace bowlers on the last day will not be an uphill talk for the batsmen because there might not be much grass and juice left on the surface on the final day. However, cricket being the game of glorious uncertainties, nothing can be predicted unless the last ball of the match is bowled. It will be the matter of nerves altogether.

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