Jammu: Vivrant Sharma and Abid Mushtaq made contrasting fifties in Jammu and Kashmir’s four-wicket win over Tripura on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match here on Friday.
Chasing 202 for an outright victory, J&K made 204 for six to cement their second position in the group behind leaders Vidarbha (27) with 23 points after five rounds.
Tripura remained in fifth place with 12 points.
The home side did the first job of bowling out Tripura, who started from overnight 170 for seven. The visitors added 41 runs before getting bundled out.
Aqib Nabi (4/54), Mushtaq (3/41) and Yudhvir Singh (3/39) shared the spoils for J&K.
Jammu and Kashmir’s chase was not an easy process as they found themselves at a crisis point on multiple occasions at — 48/3, 104/4 and then at 112/6.
But the icy Sharma (60 not out, 133b, 6×4, 2×6) and the fiery Mushtaq (53 not out, 53b, 4×4, 4×6) added 92 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket stand to earn J&K a crucial victory.
Odisha taste victory
After back-to-back innings defeats, Odisha tasted their first win of the season when they beat Maharashtra by three wickets.
The result swelled Odisha’s tally to 10 points and now they are at sixth spot after five matches.
Maharashtra remained seventh with eight points.
Mumbai close in on a win
Pacers Mohit Avasthi and Shardul Thakur shared seven wickets between them as Mumbai skittled Services out for 182 in their second innings.
It meant that Mumbai will be chasing a modest 135 for victory. They closed the day at 24 for one, and now require 111 runs to register a win.
Mumbai are currently third on the table with 16 points.
Brief Scores:
In Cuttack: Maharashtra 162 and 166 all out in 53.4 overs (Sachin Dhas 38; RS Ghosh 39; Sumit Sharma 5/46, Govind Poddar 3/42) lost to Odisha: 200 and 130/7 in 36.2 overs (Govind Poddar 48; PH Solanki 3/12) by three wickets.
Odisha: 6 points. Maharashtra: 0
In Jammu: Tripura: 165 and 211 all out in 67 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 45, Srinivas Sharath 61; Auqib Nabi 4/54; Abid Mushtaq 3/41, Yudhvir Singh 3/39) lost to Jammu & Kashmir: 175 and 204/6 in 56 overs (Vivrant Sharma 60 not out, Abid Mushtaq 53 not out; Parvez Sultan 2/39) by 3 wickets.
J&K: 6 points; Tripura: 0.
In Delhi: Services 240 and 182 all out in 62 overs (AP Sharma 39, Pulkit Narang 35; Mohit Avasthi 4/48, Shardul Thakur 3/39) vs Mumbai: 288 all out in 73.1 overs (Ayush Mhatre 116, Shreyas Iyer 47; Pulkit Narang 3/47; N Yadav 3/61, AP Sharma 2/28) and 24/1 in 6 overs.
