Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 7: Superb display of bowling by left-arm spinners MJ Daggar and CS Malhotra helped Himachal Pradesh to plot collapse of Jammu and Kashmir, bundling them out for paltry 108 runs in the first innings, while openers SN Vij, NA Sharma and middle order batsmen SG Arora and MS Dogra later-on guided them to a huge total of 318/5 in the Vijay Merchant Under-16 Cricket Tournament at the draw of stumps on day-1 at GGM Science College grounds, here today.
Earlier, winning the toss and batting first, J&K batsmen failed to negotiate the disciplined bowling of HP bowlers and were bundled out for a meagre total of 108 runs in 32.2 overs. Left-handed middle order batsman Shubam Pundir was the top scorer with 45 runs off 69 balls, studded with magnificent boundaries, while Tushar Gupta, Suryansh Raina, Abhishant Bakshi and Aman Sharma contributed 32, 29, 15 and 16 runs to the total respectively. For Himachal Pradesh, spinners Daggar and Malhotra captured 4 wickets each by giving away 27 each in 11 and 9.2 overs respectively, while KB Singh and JV Thakur claimed one wicket each.
In reply, Himachal Pradesh were comfortably placed at 318 for the loss of 5 wickets in 60 overs at the draw of stumps today. SG Arora was unbeaten on 67 off 60 balls with 11 boundaries, while, at the other end, Herman Duggal was unbeaten on 5 runs. Earlier, openers Vij and Sharma sent the J&K bowlers on a leather-hunt and made a partnership of 151 runs in 26.5 overs, before both of them fell on consecutive deliveries of left-arm spinner Aman Sharma. SG Arora and MS Dogra also played magnificent innings’ of 67 and 51 runs respectively, before becoming victims of Shubam Pundir. AR Dadwal also contributed 38 runs to the total. For J&K, Shubam Pundir captured 3 wickets, while Aman Sharma claimed two. Himachal Pradesh is already leading by 210 runs with 5 wickets in hand.
The match is being officiated by Shanker Sivasbramaniyan and Abhijit Bhattacharya as umpires, while Ashwani Kumar and Ajay Chopra were the scorers.
Follow our WhatsApp channel