Shubham duo power J&K to crucial victory over Odisha

Players celebrating victory at Mumbai on Saturday.
Players celebrating victory at Mumbai on Saturday.

Vijay Hazare Trophy
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 19: J&K’s bowling unit led by Abid Mushtaq restricted Odisha to 268 runs despite Rakesh Pattanaik’s fireworks, experienced opening batter Shubham Khajuria, skipper Shubham Pundir and Sahil Lotra displayed extraordinary batting skills to guide Jammu and Kashmir to 3-wicket win over Odisha in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy at Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy, BKC Mumbai today.
Earlier, put into bat, Odisha scored a good total of 268 runs in the stipulated 50 overs, losing 6 wickets in the process. Skipper Abhishek Raut top scored with 75 runs off 99 balls, studded with 8 fours and 3 sixes, while Rakesh Pattanaik contributed power-packed 53 runs off 31 balls, including 8 fours and 2 sixes.
For J&K, Yudhvir Singh took 3 wickets, while Mujtaba Yousuf bagged 2 wickets, however, Abid Mushtaq was the pick of the bowlers who though remained wicketless but conceded just 25 runs in his 10 overs.
In reply, J&K chased the target in 48.5 overs by losing 7 wickets, thus won the match by 3 wickets. Shubham Khajuria top scored with 78 runs off 77 balls including 9 boundaries and 1 six, while Shubham Pundir contributed 57 runs off 61 balls including 6 fours. Sahil Lotra, Vivrant Sharma and Henan Nazir contributed 40, 26 and 25 runs to the total respectively.
For Odisha, Tarani Sa captured 3 wickets by conceding 35 runs in his 9 overs, while Abhishek Raut bagged 2 wickets.
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 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 Physio and Naresh as Masseur.