Jammu and Kashmir today staged a huge upset by beating 40-time champions Mumbai by four wickets in an enthralling encounter at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
Needing 179 runs on the final day with nine wickets in hand, J&K got off to a bad start as overnight batsman Bandeep departed early but Ian Singh and first innings centurion Shubham Khajuria steadied the ship with a 52-run third wicket stand. Mumbai, then, struck a crucial blow as Iqbal Abdulla had the in-form Khajuria caught and bowled but Ian and Parveez Rasool stitched a crucial 53-run stand.
Mumbai fought back by claiming the wickets of Rasool and Waseem Raza but Hardeep Singh kept his cool under pressure situation and guided thevisitors past the finish line in their first ever meeting against Mumbai.
Earlier, J&K took the first innings honours by grabbing a small lead of 18 runs over the hosts. Mumbai,, however, batted well in the second innings to reach 254.Mumbai were reduced to 57/4 early in the second innings but Suryakumar Yadav played a captain’s innings of 115 to help the hosts set a competitive target of 237.Ram Dayal and Umar Nazir were the chief destroyers for J&k as they scalped five and four wickets each respectively.
Chasing the target, J&K lost Adil Reshi early with the scoreboard reading just 21 runs but then Khajuria and Bandeep made sure that there were no more slip-ups as they ended the day at 58/1 needing 179 more runs for victory.
(With inputs from PTI)
