Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 23: Extraordinary bowling display by budding right-arm off spinning all-rounder, Praful Dhar, coupled with good contributions with the bat from Rayees Sidiq and Amir Shafi, helped Jammu and Kashmir to thrash formidable Gujarat by 7 wickets in their pool match of the All India National School Games, being organized by the Government of Telangana, under the aegis of School Games Federation of India (SGFI) at Mehboob Nagar in Telangana.
23 States and Union Territories drawn from across the Country are taking part in the age group of Under-14 years boys in this 5-day long prestigious Tournament.
The Jammu and Kashmir team has been sponsored by the Department of Youth Services and Sports, headed by the Director General, Navin Agarwal, who had wished the players and coaches best of luck before their departure from Jammu.
Earlier, winning the toss and batting first, Gujarat scored a modest total of 91 runs in 15 overs. Harshvardhan and Satyam were the main contributors with 19 runs each. After early hiccups, the duo of Harshvardhan and Satyam of Gujarat were going great guns and took the score to 57 in 10 overs, before Praful spun web around the rival batsmen with his loop, turn, spin and bounce to plot collapse and pack Gujarat for modest 91 runs. Praful took 5 important wickets by conceding just 12 runs in his 3 overs, while Umar Farooq and Sajid claimed one wicket each. J&K’s skipper and wicketkeeper, Rayees Sidiq took 4 stumpings behind the wicket.
In reply, J&K chased the target easily in 11.2 overs by losing 3 wickets, thus won the match by 7 wickets. Rayees Sidiq top scored with 33 runs off 24 balls, studded with 5 boundaries, while Amir Shafi contributed 21 runs off 29 balls including 3 boundaries. Batting mainstay Musaif Ajaz chipped in with unbeaten 9 runs off just 5 balls, which included one crispy boundary.
BCCI’s Level-1 coach, Suresh Singh and Baba Imtiyaz are accompanying the Jammu and Kashmir team as manager and coach respectively, while Mushtaq Ahmed from Udhampur also provides the team moral support in private capacity.
J&K team: Rayees Sidiq, Musaif Ajaz, Praful Dhar, Amir Shafi Shah, Aditya Sharma, Dishant Kundal, Nikhil Partap, Mohd Wasid Khan, Syed Ayoob, Gowhar Imtiyaz, Umar Farooq, Danish Hussain, Marutvan and Ayush Andotra.
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