J&K were outplayed by strong side like Jharkhand on Friday, February 22-2019 in the match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 Tournament but the big positive out of the match for the team was form of hard hitting batsman Manzoor Pandav.
Though Jharkhand skipper Ishan Kishan powered his side home with swashbuckling inning of 100* from 55 balls, Manzoor Pandav earlier in the J&K’s inning showed glimpses of his T20 potential.
Promoted up the order after duo of Jatin Wadhwan and Shubham Khajuria had set the stage for J&K with solid 79 run stand, Manzoor Dar known as Pandav did well to take J&K to its highest T20 total.
Pandav went on to score 39 runs from 22 balls in which he smashed 4 fours and 2 sixes. Though he started little slowly but with support at the other from Parvez Rasool who scored 24 off 13 balls and Irfan Pathan who made 12 from 5 balls , Manzoor also picked it up after the fall of those two wickets. He finished with the strike rate of 177 which was exceptional.
The only worry for the hard hitting batsman of J&K would be that he has again missed out on his elusive first T20 fifty. Though he today managed his top T20 score for J&K with previous being 38* against Punjab in 2018.
In his 10 T20 innings, 224 runs with average of 32 and strike rate of 150. He has also picked up 6 wickets for J&K in the format.
If J&K think tank is going utilize Pandav upfront more in future depending on the situation we may soon see him scoring big runs.