Brilliant Samad, gutsy Auqib fashion J&K's emphatic win over Odisha

Rohit, Umar's bowling display cast spell on rivals 

CUTTACK, Jan 21: Abdul Samad played a match winning knock of unconquered 66 runs, while Auqib Nabi after taking 4 wickets played a gutsy innings of 28 runs on a batters' nightmare after pace bowling quartet of Rohit Sharma, Umar Nazir, Auqib and Umran Malik demolished rivals with their lethal spells to fashion J&K's 2-wicket victory over Odisha in a low scoring match of Ranji Trophy Elite Group-D at DRIEMS Ground Cuttack today.

Chasing a target of 149 runs, J&K were in troubling waters at 39/4 in 15.3 overs at one stage before Abdul Samad and Auqib Nabi salvaged the sinking ship and consolidated the innings to take the score to 105/5 in 31 overs before the latter's dismissal. Finally Samad (66*) and Umran Malik (07*) took their team to home. Samad took 83 balls and hit 7 fours and 2 sixes in his splendid knock, while Auqib struck 4 fours in his 55-ball knock. Shubham Singh Pundir also contributed 18 runs to the winning total. 

Medium pacer Rajesh Mohanty captured 5 wickets for Odisha, while Sunil Kumar Roul bagged 3 wickets.

Earlier, Sandeep Pattanaik rode on his luck and slammed a century to help Odisha to set a decent target of 149 runs for J&K on this bowling friendly track. Pattanaik who was overnight unbeaten on 47 runs off 108 balls, scored 100 runs off 187 balls, studded with 17 boundaries, while Suryakant Pradhan contributed valuable 34 runs off 49 balls including one four and one six. Anurag Sarangi (16) was the only other batter to cross double figure mark.

For J&K, medium pacer Auqib Nabi bagged 4 wickets by giving away 73 runs in 19 overs, while Umar Nazir took 3 wickets by conceding 36 runs in 15 overs. Rohit Sharma bagged 2 wickets and tear-away fast bowler Umran Malik claimed one. Rohit had a match haul of 7 wickets, Umar 5, Auqib 4 and Umran 3 wickets.

Earlier, in the first innings J&K had managed to score 180 runs against Odisha's first innings' total of 130 runs to gain a crucial 50-run lead. Abid had shown stellar grit and tenacity to notch up a power-packed half-century, scoring 50 runs off 51 balls studded with 7 fours and one six, while Shubham Singh Pundir had contributed valuable 34 runs and Umar Nazir chipped in with brisk 25 runs to the total.

For his outstanding bowling show, Rohit Sharma was declared as the man of the match.

"#Ranji Trophy 2023-24. Well played J&K. Win over Odisha paves the way for March ahead. Excellent team effort with a few brilliant individual performances. The bowling unit is bowling like real champions. Well played the Team. Samad, Rohit, Nazir, Auqib, Umran need a special mention," tweeted Brig Anil Gupta, Member-Administration JKCA.

The Jammu and Kashmir team is being accompanied by Ajay Sharma as the Head Coach, Krishna Kumar as Bowling Coach, Dishant Yagnik as Fielding Coach, Hilal Zargar as Manager, Sandeep Singh Sunny as Co-Manager, Susheel Pajnu as Performance/Video Analyst, Pawan Kumar as Strength & Conditioning Coach, Chirag Pandya as Physio and Naresh as Masseur.