Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 14: The preparation and the process of Talent Hunt 2022 was on full display today as clinical Jammu and Kashmir Under-19 Men’s Cricket team outplayed formidable Chandigarh by 5 wickets to qualify for the knockout stage and emerge topper in Elite Group-D of the ongoing prestigious Men’s Under-19 Vinoo Mankad Trophy at Maharana Pratap College Ground, Dehradun, today.
Earlier, put into bat, Chandigarh bundled out for 172 runs in 49.4 overs. Arnav Bansal top scored with 28 runs, while skipper Neel, Aarush Bhandari, Nikhil, Aryak and Ivraj Ranauta contributed 24, 22, 22, 21 and 20 runs to the total respectively.
For J&K, the quartet of spinners hit the right areas and spun web around the rival batsmen and restricted them to a modest total. Talented left-arm spinner Ranjot Singh, who took a record 8-wicket haul on the other day, was again the pick of the bowlers, scalping 3 wickets by conceding 31 runs in his 10 overs, Off-spinner Udhay Pratap Singh and Arya Thakur bagged 2 wickets each, while Mousub Mohd Bhat and Momin Muzaffar claimed one wicket each.
J&K, in reply, began their innings in style as both the openers- Arya Thakur (21) and Gursimran Singh (18) struck series of boundaries in the initial overs to score at a brisk rate and made the task easier for the batsmen to come. Skipper Akshit Gandral, promising Mousub Bhat and gritty Hatim Reyaz curbed their explosive instincts and played according to the situation to guide their side to a marvelous victory. Akshit took 70 balls to score magnificent 46 runs, while otherwise explosive Hatim played 66 balls for his unbeaten 20 runs and Mousub scored unbeaten 26 off 40 balls. Akshit set the stage for victory, while Mousub and Hatim held their nerves when it mattered the most and fashioned the victory in style. Udhay Pratap also contributed valuable 12 runs to the total.
For Chandigarh, Jagjeet Singh was the pick of the bowlers, who took 3 wickets by conceding 26 runs in his 10 overs, while Ivraj and Aditya claimed one wicket each.
J&K team is being accompanied by Raju Sharma as the Head Coach, Zahoor Sofi as the Manager, Shafqat Malik as Bowling Coach, Ravi Sharma as Co-Manager, Suresh Singh as Fielding Coach, Pawan Kumar as Trainer, Haseeb Rehman as Physio and Sameer Malik as the Video Analyst.
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