Rajkot, Oct 23: Showing character and displaying grit & guts when it mattered the most in the crunch situation, the members of well-knit J&K Men’s U-23 team played as a cohesive unit like champions to help their side gain a first innings lead and earn 7 vital points against formidable Saurashtra in the ongoing Col CK Nayudu Trophy at Niranjan Shah Cricket Stadium Ground-C, the pitch of which was simply a paradise for the batters, where over 1000 runs were scored in the first innings of each side, including two double centuries and two centuries.
Earlier, resuming from an overnight score of 269/4, Saurashtra rode on a double century by middle-order batter Raxit Mehta to come close to J&K’s huge first innings total of 568/9 dl, scoring 487 runs, thus conceding a lead of 81 runs to Jammu and Kashmir.
Raxit scored 202 runs off 349 balls, studded with 16 fours and 4 sixes, while skipper HS Kotak (43), Smitrajainh (42), Maurya Ghoghari (40), Gajjar Sammar (37), Neel Pandya (36) and Ansh Gosai (30) were the other contributors.
For J&K, spinners Vishal Kumar and Janib Javaid bagged 3 wickets each, while speedster Mujtaba Yousuf and Arnav Gupta claimed one wicket each.
J&K bowlers bowled with a disciplined line and length on the last day of the match today, thus helping their side to earn a total of 7 points including 3 points by virtue of the first innings lead, 3 batting points and one bowling point, while Saurashtra secured 5 points from the game, including 3 batting points, one bowling point and one point after conceding first innings lead to J&K.
Earlier, J&K had scored a massive total of 568/9 dl in the first innings.
Yawer Hassan scored 219 off 381 balls, studded with 23 boundaries and one six, while skipper Kanhaiya Wadhawan contributed 155 runs off 311 balls with 17 fours and one six and Qamran Iqbal had hit a power-packed 109 runs off 90 balls. Musaif Ajaz (41) was the other major contributor.
Maurya Ghoghari was the pick of the bowlers for Saurashtra who captured 6 wickets, while Neel Pandya bagged 3 wickets.
The J&K team is being accompanied by Punit Bisht as Head Coach, Rajesh Dhar as Manager, Kavaljeet Singh as Batting Coach, Sameer Ali as Bowling Coach, Ravi Sharma as Co-Manager, Gurupratap Singh as Trainer, Abhishek Bundela as Physiotherapist, Sameer Malik as Video Analyst and Arun Kumar as Masseur.
Meanwhile, Member-Administration JKCA Brig Anil Gupta and Member Cricket Operations JKCA, Mr Mithun Manhas congratulated the players and the members of support staff for this brilliant display of cricketing skills.
