Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 14: Indian off-spinner Parvez Rasool led Jammu and Kashmir defeated legendary off-spinner Harbhajan Singh-led formidable Punjab by 23 runs in the ongoing North Zone leg of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Cricket Tournament, being organized under the auspices of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at Ferozshah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi.
Earlier, Punjab skipper Harbhajan Singh won the toss and put Jammu and Kashmir into bat.
J&K makeshift openers Bandeep Singh and Jatin Wadhawan began cautiously and scored just 10 runs in first 4 overs. However, both the openers were in murderous mood and scored 34 runs in next two overs, with 19 coming in the 5th over from medium pacer Sran and 15 from another speedster Grewal to take J&K to 44/0 in first six overs. However, Harbhajan Singh did the trick by scalping two quick wickets in Bandeep (33) and Shubham Singh Pundir (0). But Jatin Wadhawan (35 off 35), Ian Dev Singh (43* off 22) and Manzoor Dar (38* off 33) took the score to a decent total of 164/3 in the stipulated 20 overs. Harbhajan Singh was the pick of the bowlers, who took 2 important wickets by conceding 12 runs in his 3 overs, while Markande claimed one wicket by giving away 21 runs in his 4 overs. Yuvraj Singh bowled a one over for 12 runs.
In reply, Jammu and Kashmir bowlers restricted Punjab to a total of 141 runs, thus won the match by a margin of 23 runs. Manan Vohra top scored with 53 runs, while Gurkeerat Singh made brisk 34 runs off 12 balls and Harbhajan Singh contributed 15 off 7 balls. Yuvraj Singh again failed with the bat, scoring just 4 runs off 8 balls he faced. For J&K, left-arm spinner Waseem Raza was the wrecker-in-chief, who captured 4 important wickets by conceding 16 runs in his 4 overs, while speedster Umar Nazir took 2 wickets. Parez Rasool, Manik Gupta, Mohammad Mudhasir and Manzoor Dar claimed one wicket each. The Jammu and Kashmir team is being accompanied by Imraj Thakur as manager and Vijay Sharma as coach, while Dr Ajaz Chillu, Pawan Kumar Sharma and Mushtaq Ahmed Rather are physio, trainer and fielding coach respectively.
The team has been selected by the senior selection committee of JKCA including Ashwani Gupta (Chairman), Zahoor Bhat, Vivek Sharma, Arshid Bhat. Pradeep Bali and Parvez Rasool (Captain/ Member).
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