Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 2: Skipper Parvez Rasool led from the front and took 7 important wickets before scoring unbeaten 35 runs alongwith Bandeep Singh’s sensible 37 not out, to help Jammu and Kashmir create history by qualifying for the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals for the first time since 2000, following a draw against Tripura in their final Group C league match at Agartala today.
It was under the captaincy of former Test cricketer Ajay Jadeja that J&K had qualified for the knockout stage in the year 2000.
Now, J&K will play against Punjab at Baroda in the quarterfinals from January 8, 2014.
The J&K team had taken the first innings lead and the draw was an expected result.
With three points from the tie, J&K ended tied on 28 points with Goa but qualified on the basis of their marginally better point quotient. J&K had a quotient of 1.006 as against Goa’s 1.005 after the team ended the fourth and final day at 87 for two in a chase of 228.
Earlier, Tripura began the day at a solid 103 for 2 but were all out for 272 as off-spinner Parvez Rasool wreaked havoc by spinning web around the rival batsmen to claim 7 wickets by conceding 87 runs in his 36 overs. Waseem Raza 2/55 and Bandeep Singh 1/5 were the other successful bowlers.
Tripura’s overnight batsmen Abhijit Dey (63), Kaushal Acharjee (35) began cautiously and had extended their partnership to 78 runs, but Rasool dismissed both in a gap of four overs.
After that skipper Yogesh Takawale (28) and Manisankar Murasingh (37) resisted the J&K attack for some time but eventually they were bundled out for 272 runs on the board.
The visitors then lost opener Adil Reshi (1) and Ian Dev Singh (9) cheaply, but make-shift opener Bandeep Singh (37) and Parvez Rasool (35) batted beautifully to serve a twin purpose of drawing the match and enhancing their run quotient. Rasool and Samiuallah were the star performers with bat and ball in the first innings. While, Samiuallah bagged 5 wickets, Rasool scored sparkling 92-ball 83 runs.
Brief Scores:
Tripura 280 and 272 in 103.5 overs.(Abhijit Dey 63, Kaushik Acharjee 35; Parvez Rasool 7/87).
Jammu and Kashmir: 325 and 87 for 2 in 25 overs.(Parvez Rasool 37 not out, Bandeep Singh 37; Manisankar Murasingh 1/12).
Jammu and Kashmir team is being accompanied by Abdul Qayoom as coach, Dr Vinod Bakshi as manager and Naveen Sharma as joint manager.
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