Srinagar, Jan 12: Bouncing back strongly, J&K thrashed Tripura by seven wickets in its second match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament at Alur Cricket Stadium, Bengaluru on Tuesday.
It was second match for J&K T20 team in the tournament after having suffered 43-run defeat against hosts Karnataka in the first match. They needed to win it to stay in contention for qualification into second round.
Earlier, J&K won the toss and opted to field first. For the match, J&K made two changes, bringing in Mujtaba Yousuf and Puneet Kumar in place of Umar Nazir and Qamran Iqbal.
The decision to field first proved right as senior pacer Ram Dayal gave J&K early breakthroughs by removing both Tripura openers in third over of the inning. After that, Sankar Paul and Udiyan Bose formed a solid stand for Tripura.
They took Tripura score from 16 for the loss of two wickets to 72 in 12 overs. Spinner Abid Mushtaq removed Bose in the 13th over and then Parvez Rasool trapped Sankar Paul lbw in 14th over.
The experienced Mura Singh was run out by Ahmad Banday. All-rounder Auquib Nabi then ran through Tripura lower order as Tripura bundled out for 93 runs in 18.1 overs.
Auquib took three wickets in 2.1 overs, giving away only 10 runs. Abid Mushtaq and Ram Dayal took two wickets each while as Parvez took one. Mujtaba was superb in his first match. In his four over spell, Mujtaba gave away only eight runs and took one wicket.
In reply, J&K started with Ahmad Banday and Suryansh Raina. Banday got out cheaply, scoring only three runs. The next in batsman Shubham Khajuria also failed, scoring only two runs. That left J&K with 30 for the loss of two wickets.
In the middle Suryansh Raina who was going well was joined by Shubham Pundir. While Pundir took his time, Raina kept going at other end. He was third wicket to fall in J&K inning on the score of 56 in 8.1 overs. Raina scored 33 from 25 deliveries.
The next in batsman Parvez Rasool and Pundir took J&K home with seven wickets in hand. J&K overhauled total in 14.5 overs for the loss of three wickets. Parvez Rasool remained not out on 19 from 17 while as Pundir remained unbeaten on 21 from 35 .
With this win J&K opened its tally on points table. In Elite Group, Punjab is at top while as Railways is at second place with eight points each from two matches. Karnataka is at third place with four points. J&K also have got four points but due to inferior run rate stand at fourth place. Uttar Pradesh and Tripura stand at fifth and sixth place, respectively after having lost both of their matches so far.
J&K will next play on January 14 against Uttar Pradesh.