Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 22: Himachal Pradesh declared their first innings at 380/9 and gained a huge lead of 248 runs against Jammu and Kashmir on Day-2 of the 3-day match of Vijay Merchant Under-16 Cricket Tournament at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cricket Stadium, Amtar in Himachal Pradesh, today.
Earlier, resuming from an overnight total of 154/2, Himachal Pradesh rode on magnificent unbeaten century (119) by Purab J Singh and superb 98 by Sidharth A Mehta, scored a decent total of 380/9 before declaring their first innings. Aryavat R Sharma, Vaibhav S Kalta and Vikram R Thakur scored 56, 42 and 30 runs respectively. For J&K, left-arm seam bowler Mujtaba Yousuf was the pick of the bowlers, who took 3 wickets by conceding 31 runs in his 15 overs, while skipper Abdul Samad also claimed 3 wickets by giving away 100 runs in his 38 overs. Off-spinners Praful Dhar, Zamin Bin Zahoor and Raghav Sharma claimed one wicket each in their 11, 12 and 10 overs respectively.
Trailing by 248 runs, J&K were 113 for the loss of one wicket at stumps on Day-2 today. Kanhaiya Wadhawan was unbeaten on 33 off 65 balls, while Abdul Samad made 78 off 62 balls before his dismissal. Lakshay H Verma was the wicket-taker for Himachal Pradesh.
J&K are still trailing by 129 runs with 9 wickets in hand and one full day remaining.