Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 12: Scripting wins over District Samba in the pool matches, the Districts of Jammu and Kishtwar sailed into the semifinals of the Divisional Level Inter-District Tennis Ball Cricket Championship, which got underway at MA Stadium, here today.
The tournament in which six districts drawn from Jammu division are taking part is being held under the overall supervision of Ashok Kumar, Deputy Director Youth Sports, Jammu. The participating districts included Jammu, Samba, Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch and Reasi, with Doda, Reasi and Rajouri placed in pool A, while Jammu, Samba and Kishtwar are in pool B.
Earlier, in the first match played today, Jammu trounced Samba by 7 runs in a close contest. Winning the toss and batting first, Jammu district scored a modest total of 35 runs in the stipulated 6 overs. Mohit Gupta (12) and Varun Dogra (7) were the main contributors. For Samba, Amit was the pick of the bowlers, who scalped 3 wickets by conceding 11 runs.
Samba district, in reply managed to score only 28 runs in the allotted overs, thus lost the match by a narrow margin of 7 runs. Jasbir and Vikas contributed 10 and 6 runs to the total respectively. Mohit Gupta and Aman Sharma claimed 2 wickets each for Jammu.
In another match, Reasi scripted a thrilling win over Doda by 3 runs. Batting first, Reasi scored 57 for the loss of 4 wickets in 6 overs, with Bhanu Pratap Singh contributing highest 32 runs to the total, while Vidur scored 8 runs. For Doda, Nayeem took 2 wickets, while Yawar claimed one.
Doda, in reply gave a splendid fight, but managed to score 54 runs to lose the match by just 3 runs. Amit scored brilliant 28 runs, while Nayeem contributed 9 runs to the total. Gourav claimed 2 wickets for Reasi and Ankush one.
Kishtwar drubbed Samba by 12 runs in another pool match played today. Kishtwar scored 45 runs in stipulated 6 overs, with Hinan and Arslan scoring 22 and 8 runs to the total respectively. Amandeep and Vikas claimed one wicket each for Samba.
Samba managed to score 33 runs in the allotted overs, thus lost the match by 12 runs. Prince and Amandeep contributed 9 and 7 runs to the total respectively. For Kishtwar, Sushil captured 3 wickets, while Burhan claimed 2 wickets.
In last match of the day, Rajouri trounced Reasi by 17 runs. Rajouri scored 56 runs in 6 overs, losing 4 wickets in the process. Alias Wani (25), Nadeem Mir (11) and Sultan Sikander (9) were the main contributors. For Reasi, Ajay and Gourav claimed one wicket each.
Reasi could manage to score only 39 runs in the allotted overs, thus lost the match by 17 runs. Chetan contributed 15 runs, while Ankush chipped in 8 runs to the total. For Rajouri, Gulbash took 2 wickets, while Sultan Sikander claimed one.
The matches were officiated by Saleem-ur-Rehman, Jagtar Singh, Madan Mohan, Pankaj Sasan, Suresh Singh and Sadiq Hussain Malik.