Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 9: Team effort helped Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) to defeat Gujarat in the summit clash to lift the title trophy of the prestigious Bhausaheb Nimbalkar Cricket Tournament, organized by the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) at Pune in Maharashtra.
Resuming from an overnight score of 165/8 on the third and the last day of the match, Gujarat added 23 runs to set a target of 100 runs for JKCA.
For JKCA, Waseem Raza was the pick of the bowlers, who took 3 wickets, while Asif Rasool and Rohit Sharma bagged 2 wickets each. Skipper Ramdayal Punia and Manik Gupta claimed one wicket each.
Chasing the target of 101 runs, JKCA surpassed it in 20.4 overs by losing just one wicket, thus won the match by 9 wickets. Opener Adil Reshi scored power-packed 65 runs, while Sidharth Magotra and Bandeep Singh remained unbeaten on 17 and 9 runs respectively.
Earlier, in the first innings, Gujarat was bundled out for 128 runs, with Ramdayal, Rohit Sharma and Asif Rasool from JKCA bagging 4, 3, 3 wickets respectively, while JKCA in reply got the 90 runs lead, scoring 217 runs, with Ramdayal, Paras Sharma and Bandeep Singh being the main scorers.
It is pertinent to mention here that this is for the first time in the history of JKCA that a team sent for an exposure tour came back with flying colours.
The team is being accompanied by former Ranji trophy skipper, Abdul Qayoom as coach, Nirmal Singh as manager and Dr Aijaz as physio.
The JKCA office bearers have lauded the efforts of the team for this landmark achievement.
Brief scores: Gujarat 1st Innings 128, Jai Desai 33, Ramdayal 4/54, Rohit Sharma 3/39, Asif Rasool 3/32; JKCA 1st Innings 217, Ramdayal 30, Paras Sharma 29, Salil Yadav 3/32; Gujarat 2nd Innings 188 Jesal 53, Waseem Raza 3/29, Asif Rasool 2/42, Rohit Sharma 2/56.
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