Bhilai, Dec 16: Talented left-arm spinner Jeevesh Gupta took a 5-wicket haul to take his tally to 23 wickets in the tournament and along with part-time bowler Dhruv Sharma help Jammu and Kashmir restrict formidable Uttar Pradesh to 275 runs in the first innings of the Vijay Merchant Trophy match at Sector-1 Ground Bhilai, on Friday.
Earlier, batting first, Uttar Pradesh openers played sensibly and before left-arm spinner, Jeevesh Gupta removed Aditya Shishoudiya at his individual score of 47 runs and the team’s total of 88 runs in 24.4 overs.
However, after the dismissal of Shishoudiya, wickets fell at regular intervals as Jeevesh spun the web and wreaked havoc to capture 5 important wickets, thus restricting Uttar Pradesh to a total of 275 runs. Skipper Kaartikaya Singh top scored with 61 runs off 88 balls, studded with 8 fours and 2 sixes, while Shishoudiya, Sachin Tiwari and Bhavi Sharma contributed 47, 42 and 39 runs to the total respectively.
For J&K, Jeevesh bagged 5 wickets by conceding 102 runs in his 29.4 overs, while Dhruv Sharma claimed 3 wickets by giving away just 4 runs in his 5 overs. Mudasir Abdullah and Bilal Mohi U Din also claimed one wicket each.
In reply, J&K were 51/1 in 14 overs at stumps on day-1 On Friday. Irfan Ahmed (23) and Arman Sharma (14) were at the crease. Arihant Sharma (12) was the only batter dismissed by Aditya Kumar Singh.
