Bucchi Babu Invitation Tournament : Paras slams ton; Abid, Kawal hit fifties as J&K gains vital 1st innings lead

Chennai, Aug 27: Sublimity, solidity, elegance and brilliance was on display as skipper Paras Dogra slammed a fabulous century after early hiccups, while Abid Mushtaq and Kawal Preet Singh scored magnificent fifties to guide Jammu and Kashmir gain a vital slender lead over Odisha in the ongoing Bucchi Babu Invitation Cricket Tournament, being organised by Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) at SSN Chennai.A statement issued here said that replying to Odisha’s first innings score of 314 runs, J&K after losing early four wickets, rode on a batting brilliance from the trio of Paras Dogra, Abid Mushtaq and Kawal Preet Singh to score 330 in 86.5 overs, thus gaining a slender 16-run lead. Paras scored 141 runs off 218 balls, studded with 15 fours and 4 sixes, while Abid once again proved his all-round ability by scoring 71 runs off 101 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes and Kawal Preet contributed 50 runs off 83 balls with 6 boundaries.Syed Tuffel Ahammed was the most successful bowler, who took 4 wickets by conceding 116 runs in 25.5 overs, while  Govind Poddar bagged 3 wickets. Rajesh Mohanty and Piyush Panjgrahi claimed one wicket each. Odisha, in the second essay were 6/1 in 4 balls at stumps on day-2. Opener OM T Munde was the baater to be dismissed by Umran Malik in the very first over. Earlier, on day-1 put into bat, Odisha had managed to score 314 runs, with Rajesh Dhupar scoring 104 runs. For J&K, left-arm spinners– Vanshaj Sharma and Abid Mushtaq had taken 4 wickets each, while Umran Malik had taken 2 wickets. “While top-order led to victory in earlier two matches, middle-order led by skipper Paras Dogra made merry with the bat to ensure first innings lead against Odisha. Masterly century by Dogra ably assisted by fine contributions from Kawal Preet and Abid were the other highlights. Well played,” tweeted Member Administration JKCA, Brig Anil Gupta  Member Cricket Operations JKCA, Mithun Manhas lauded the efforts of the team for its good show under unshakeable skipper.