Season’s talent hunt and first of its kind practice matches at home, coupled with sheer-dint of hardwork by the administrators, mentors, selectors and the management especially, the coaches guided Jammu and Kashmir eves to begin the season in style, drubbing their counterparts from Chandigarh by 4 wickets in the Women’s Under-19 One Day Trophy match at Aditya Academy Ground, Kolkata on Sunday.
Earlier, winning the toss and batting first after a delayed start, forcing the umpires to curtail the number of overs, making it a 27 overs-a-side match, Chandigarh after starting the innings cautiously managed to score a modest total of 111 runs in the stipulated 27 overs.
Sarah played a brilliant innings of unbeaten 54 runs off 86 balls studded with 4 fours, while Gulnaaz contributed valuable 30 runs off 40 balls with 2 boundaries.
For J&K, though almost all the bowlers bowled with disciplined line and length, yet right-arm leg-spinner and skipper Ananaya Sharma was the pick of the bowlers, taking 2 wickets by conceding 17 runs in her 6 overs, while right-arm medium pacer Aanvi Singh claimed one wicket by giving away 15 runs in her 4 overs.
In reply, J&K openers Afreen Malik and Manya Banotra began with caution and aggression to score 41 runs in first 8 overs, before the former got runout at her individual score of 16 runs off 30 balls, studded with 3 boundaries. Both the batters showed grit and guts and played the ball with fluidity, solidity and grace to score runs at a brisk rate. Manya continued her brilliance and along with batting mainstay Rudrakshi Chib took the score to 66 runs in 12.2 overs. Manya scored 28 runs off 45 balls, studded with 4 boundaries, while Rudrakshi contributed 19 off just 17 balls including 2 fours.
Later in the innings Shanu Devi (11*) and Aanvi Singh (7*) held their nerves when it mattered the most in the crunch situation and took their side to home in 27th over.
J&K cruised past the total in 26.2 overs by losing 6 wickets, thus won the match by 4 wickets.
For Chandigarh, Parushi Prabhakar took 3 wickets by conceding 27 runs in 6 overs, while Poorvi Singh claimed one wicket by giving away 15 runs in her 5 overs.
The Sub Committee Members of JKCA including Brig Anil Gupta, Member-Administration JKCA; Mithun Manhas, Member Cricket Operations JKCA and Sunil Sethi, Member Legal Affairs JKCA congratulated the team for this big win.
The Jammu and Kashmir team is being accompanied by Ravi Dogra and Neha Slathia as the Managers; Huwaid Hamid and Jyoti Bala as the Coaches; Rohit Rana as the Trainer; Sheikh Suhail, Video Analyst and Bisma Gulzar as Physiotherapist.
