SRINAGAR: Half a dozen matches were played Monday in State Cricket Academy T-20 Championship across four districts of the valley.
BCC Bongam, Varmul XI, Coaching Center Kupwara and RPC Wathoora pocketed victories in their fixtures.
In the first game of the day in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, BCC Bongam beat Zawoora Cricket Club by 26 runs. Batting first, BCC Bongam posted a decent score of 183 in the allotted 20 overs. In reply, Zawoora were restricted to 157. Mudasir Rasheed walked away with man of the match for his three-fer.
North Kashmir’s Baramulla saw Varmul XI fixtured against Pattan XI with the former thumping its opponents by 63 in what turned out to be a lopsided tie. Batting first, Varmul XI scored 137 for the loss of five wickets in the allotted 20 overs. And, then gave a great exhibition of their bowling prowess to skittle out Pattan XI for a nothing 74. Umar earned man of the match award for his five wicket haul.
The frontier district fixture involved Coaching Center Kupwara and Ramhal XI which former won by six wickets. Coaching Center Kupwara restricted Ramhal XI to just 124 for the loss of seven wickets and then didn’t sweat much to scale down the target in 17.4 overs losing only four wickets. Junaid was declared man of the match for snaring three wickets for the winning side.
State Cricket Academy T-20 Championship reached central Budgam’s district with Director SCA Mubashir Hassan inaugurating the game between Sovereign Bemina and RPC Wathoora at Narbal. RPC Wathoora won the game by five wickets. RPC Wahtoora gave a great display of their batting prowess chasing down the target of 170 in 19.1 overs losing just five wickets after Sovereign Bemina made 169 in the first innings. Shabir scored a match winning 70 to earn himself a man of the match award.
Hassan reiterated that the main purpose of the tournament was to spot new talent.
“We want to take cricket to the places where talent hasn’t been tapped yet. There is tremendous talent in countryside and we need to make sure it doesn’t go waste. Hopefully we will have a pool of at least 50 players by the end of this tournament who we believe can take J&K cricket forward,” he said. He encouraged players to give their hundred percent if they were to excel in the sport.