Mumbai: Unfancied Jammu and Kashmir continued their glorious run in the ongoing Ranji Trophy, beating star-studded defending champions Mumbai by five wickets in a group A league match to almost confirm their knock-out berth. It was after a decade that Jammu and Kashmir beat the 42-time champions, having last won in December 2014 at the Wankhede Stadium.
It wasn’t a mean achievement with Mumbai squad comprising of India Test and ODI skipper Rohit Sharma, former captain and 80 plus Test match veteran Ajinkya Rahane, ODI regular and IPL winning skipper Shreyas Iyer, star opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, seasoned all-rounder Shardul Thakur and off-spinner Tanush Kotian, who was a part of Border-Gavaskar squad.
Rohit’s return to Ranji Trophy after a decade yielded only 31 runs across two knocks and he looked very much out of form, shaky and not ready to grind it out for long hours.
J&K now have 29 points from six games and lead group A with a match left against Baroda where they need to get just one point.
Baroda (27 from 5 games) are currently playing Maharashtra. If Baroda get a first-innings lead against J&K in their last game, Mumbai (22 from 6 games) would be knocked out of the group league phase even if they win with bonus points versus Meghalaya.
On the day, needing 205 to win, opener Shubham Khajuria (45) and one down Vivrant Sharma (38) laid the foundation with a 75 runs stand for the second wicket.
IPL star Abdul Samad (24 off 20 balls) smashed five boundaries but it was left-handed Abid Mushtaq (32 not out) who finished the match with a couple of huge sixes off Kotian. The first one was down the ground and the second was a winning hit over ‘Cow Corner’ as the dug-out celebrated wildly.
The Indian skipper Rohit was seen applauding the J&K players even as he tried to hide his disappointment.
The Mumbai camp looked desolate despite a fine fightback in the second innings that saw them get to 290, thanks to Shardul Thakur’s (119) brilliant rear-guard hundred.
Jammu and Kashmir medium pacers — Yudhvir Singh (7 wickets), Umar Nazir Mir (6 wickets) and Auquib Nabi (6 wickets) — scalped 19 out of the 20 Mumbai wickets on a BKC track that offered some help during the first two mornings, largely due to the underlying moisture. Batting became easier during the post-lunch session on second day as was evident from Shardul-Kotian stand.
On the final day, there was some turn, bounce and grip available as Shams Mulani (4/54 in 15 overs) gave it his all but Mumbai’s opening bowlers Shardul (0/45 in 8 overs) and Mohit Avasthi (1/33 in 10 overs) didn’t seem potent enough once the nip off the surface was gone after first 30 minutes.
All Jammu and Kashmir needed were two good partnerships – one they got because of Khajuria and Vivrant. Also, opener Yawer Hassan (24) got some quick runs. The second one was 48 runs for the sixth wicket between Abid and Kanhaiya Wadhawan (19 not out).
The Mumbai bowlers bowled too many boundary balls — 25 fours and three sixes which was unpardonable while defending a small total. But it was poor first innings batting by Mumbai (120) that became decisive in the end.
