*Samad steers J&K to first win of season
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 22: Abdul Samad helped Jammu & Kashmir overcome a tricky chase with an unbeaten 66, steering his team to a two-wicket win over Odisha in Ranji Trophy here today. It was the first win of the season for J&K after sharing points with Delhi and Himachal in their two home games marred by bad light in Elite Group D.
Chasing a target of 149 runs, J&K were in troubling waters at 39/4 in 15.3 overs at one stage before Abdul Samad and Auqib Nabi salvaged the sinking ship and consolidated the innings to take the score to 105/5 in 31 overs before the latter’s dismissal. Finally Samad (66*) and Umran Malik (07*) took their team home. Samad took 83 balls and hit 7 fours and 2 sixes in his splendid knock, while Auqib struck 4 fours in his 55-ball knock. Shubham Singh Pundir also contributed 18 runs to the winning total.
Medium pacer Rajesh Mohanty captured 5 wickets for Odisha, while Sunil Kumar Roul bagged 3 wickets. Earlier, Sandeep Pattanaik rode on his luck and slammed a century to help Odisha to set a decent target of 149 runs for J&K on this bowling friendly track. Pattanaik who was overnight unbeaten on 47 runs off 108 balls, scored 100 runs off 187 balls, studded with 17 boundaries, while Suryakant Pradhan contributed valuable 34 runs off 49 balls including one four and one six. Anurag Sarangi (16) was the only other batter to cross double figure mark.
For J&K, medium pacer Auqib Nabi bagged 4 wickets by giving away 73 runs in 19 overs, while Umar Nazir took 3 wickets by conceding 36 runs in 15 overs. Rohit Sharma bagged 2 wickets and tear-away fast bowler Umran Malik claimed one. Rohit had a match haul of 7 wickets, Umar 5, Auqib 4 and Umran 3 wickets.
Earlier, in the first innings J&K had managed to score 180 runs against Odisha’s first innings’ total of 130 runs to gain a crucial 50-run lead. Abid had shown stellar grit and tenacity to notch up a power-packed half-century, scoring 50 runs off 51 balls studded with 7 fours and one six, while Shubham Singh Pundir had contributed valuable 34 runs and Umar Nazir chipped in with brisk 25 runs to the total. For outstanding bowling show, Rohit Sharma was declared as the man of the match.
“#Ranji Trophy 2023-24. Well played J&K. Win over Odisha paves the way for March ahead. Excellent team effort with a few brilliant individual performances. The bowling unit is bowling like real champions. Well played the Team. Samad, Rohit, Nazir, Auqib, Umran need a special mention,” posted on X by Brigadier Anil Gupta, Member-Administration JKCA.
Brief scores
Odisha: 130 and 198 vs Jammu & Kashmir 180 and 149/8 in 23.2 overs (Abdul Samad 66 not out; Rajesh Mohanty 5/61). J&K beat Odisha by two wickets.
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