J&K’s Ian scores unbeaten 95, Unmukt slams ton

Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 11: Powered by fine knocks by the Jammu and Kashmir’s promising batsman Ian Dev Singh of unbeaten 95 runs and 116 by team India aspirant Unmukt Chand, North Zone piled up 329 runs losing only 2 wickets against defending champions East Zone at the end of second day’s play in the Duleep Trophy semifinal at Kochi in Kerala, today.
As per the reports reaching here, resuming at their overnight score of 33/0, North Zone lost their first wicket of opener Jiwanjot Singh adding just 17 runs to their overnight socre, thanks to fine bowling by Dinda.  A wonderful catch by Samantray off the very first delivery of the 27th over ended Jiwanjot’s innings.
Ian Dev Singh, who came in place of Jiwanjot, extended full support to Chand and played cautiously and was at par with Chand in stroke making. However, he was forced to go back to the pavallion due to hamstring injury when the score was 237.
But after Ian Dev retired hurt, the rhythm of Chand, who had punished Nadeem at regular intervals driving the ball to the fence, particularly in the 40th over, was lost and he fell when his personal score read 116, facing 230 balls,
Mandeep Singh (not out 40) and RS Paliwal (not out 41) were  at the crease when the stumps were drawn on day-2 of the match after the rain hit first day.
Meanwhile, when contacted by EXCELSIOR, Ian said that he was waiting for this opportunity for long and dedicated his knock, in which he struck 11 boundaries and 2 sixes, to cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar.
It is pertinent to mention here, that the North Zone team was selected recently by the Committee which included Vikram Rathore as the chairman, Sunil Dev as its convener, besides the members including Chetan Chauhan, Aman and Shiban Lal Trakroo, representative from J&K.
“The North Zone team apart from Ian Dev Singh includes J&K’s Parvez Rasool, besides Ramdayal in the reserves,” said Trakroo.

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