History in the making: Clinical J&K seals berth in historic Ranji Trophy semis

Aqib Nabi wreaks havoc, demolishes Madhya Pradesh

STATE TIMES NEWS

INDORE: It is history in the making as clinical Jammu and Kashmir scripted a convincing 56-run victory over formidable Madhya Pradesh in the quarterfinals to seal berth in the first-ever semifinals of the prestigious Ranji Trophy at Holkar Stadium, Indore on Monday.

Earlier, resuming from 87/5, Madhya Pradesh batters despite making valiant efforts went downfighting to lose the match by a margin of 56 runs, scoring 234 runs.
Saransh Jain top scored with gritty 64 runs off 81 balls, studded with 7 fours and one six, while Shubham Sharma (32), Himanshu Mantri (31), Aryan Pandey (22) and Yash Dubey (20) were the other contributors.
Auqib Nabi, who was wrecker-in-chief in the first innings taking 7 wickets and emerged pick of the bowlers to take 5 wickets by conceding 70 runs in his 24 overs, while Abid Mushtaq took 3 wickets and Sunil Kumar claimed one wicket.
Earlier, on day-3, Vanshaj Sharma and Abid Mushtaq’s lower-order fireworks, capped by a defiant 65-run last-wicket stand with Sunil Kumar, propelled Jammu & Kashmir to a challenging 291-run target.
J&K battled to 248 in their second innings-extending their 42-run first-innings lead into a formidable victory equation. Vanshaj Sharma starred unbeaten on 54 off 92 balls (3×4, 1×6), with Abid Mushtaq (41), Abdul Samad (32), Sunil Kumar (26), and Yudhvir Singh (18) providing crucial support.
Madhya Pradesh’s Kuldeep Sen claimed 4 wickets, while Venkatesh Iyer and Ramveer Singh Gurgar shared 3 wickets apiece.
Earlier, J&K’s first-innings 194 was anchored by Shubham Khajuria’s 60 and Yudhvir Singh’s 41. MP crumbled to 152, undone by Aaqib Nabi’s (7/40 in the first innings) and Sunil Kumar’s 3 wickets.
Kuldeep Sen ripped through with 5/66, backed by Kumar Kartikeya Singh (3) and Aryan Pandey (2).
The Jammu and Kashmir team is being accompanied by former Test cricketer Ajay Sharma as the Head Coach, P. Krishna Kumar as Bowling Coach, Dishant Yagnik as Fielding Coach, Hilal Ahmed Zargar as Manager, Ravi Sharma as Co-Manager, Sunny Kumar as Trainer, Susheel Pajnu as Video Analyst, Chirag Pandya as Physio, Naresh as Masseur and Manoj as Side-Arm Expert.
The JKCA Administrators–Brig Anil Gupta and Vidhya Bhaskar, Ajay Sharma, Head Coach; CAC Members–Abdul Qayoom, Vijay Sharma and Meenu Singh Slathia, and Selectors–Sarabjeet Singh (Chairperson), Dhruv Mahajan and Arshad Bhat deserve salutations for this remarkable achievement.
While describing the win as historic, Member Administration JKCA has congratulated the team members for this great achievement.