Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 16: Baroda’s ace all-rounder, Mahesh Pithiya (MP) stole the show by being brilliant with the ball and magnificent with the willow as J&K’s Musaif Ajaz’s superb 95 went in vain in formidable Baroda’s big 6-wicket win over Jammu and Kashmir in the ongoing Cooch Behar Trophy match at GGM Science College Hostel ground, here today.
Pithiya displayed extraordinary cricketing skills, scalping 8 important wickets in J&K’s first innings and scored superb 55 runs in Baroda’s first essay, besides taking 5 wickets in J&K’s second innings and scoring splendid unbeaten 63 runs to take his side to home.
Earlier, resuming from an overnight total of 112/3, Jammu and Kashmir managed to score 239 in their second innings, thus setting a decent victory target of 170 runs for Baroda. The overnight batting duo of skipper Kanhaiya Wadhawan and Musaif Ajaz continued their brilliance in the morning after a delayed 4th day’s start and played sensibly to counter the disciplined bowling of Baroda led by their star performer Mahesh Pithya. Both the batsmen amalgamated defence with offence and made a partnership of 97 runs, before Kanhaiya was dismissed at his individual score of 65 runs and team’s total of 149/4 in 38.2 overs. The pair of Musaif and Kanhaiya played with fluid grace and utter brilliance. Yawer Hassan also contributed 29 runs to the total, while Musaif was the last man to be dismissed at his individual score of 95 runs and the team’s total of 239 runs. He hit 5 fours and 4 sixes in his 137-ball knock. None of the other batsmen could manage to cross the double figure mark. For Baroda, Mahesh Pithiya took 5 important wickets, while Ansh Patel bagged 3 wickets and Malhar Ghevaria claimed one wicket.
Chasing a victory target of 170 runs, Baroda took 50.1 overs to surpass it, losing 4 wickets in the process, thus won the match by 6 wickets. Skipper KT Marathe top scored with 64 runs off 118 balls, while Mahesh Pithiya contributed valuable 63 runs to the total. At one juncture, Baroda were struggling at 41/4 in 15.1 overs. However, Marathe and Pithiya applied to a perfection, helping Baroda to script a big win. For J&K, Sampark Gupta, who had 8-wicket haul in the first innings, was again pick of the bowlers, taking 3/52 in his 20 overs, while Dhruv Singh Parmar also claimed one wicket.
Jammu and Kashmir will lock horns with Saurashtra in the next match at Jammu on December 20, 2019.
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