Hubli, Feb 25 (IANS) All-rounder Sahil Lotra stood tall with an unbeaten 57 as Jammu and Kashmir reached 527/6 at Stumps on Day 2 in the Ranji Trophy Final against the eight-time champions Karnataka here at the Hubli Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
After losing two big wickets in the second session, the Jammu and Kashmir team started the third session with caution, but Sahil soon changed gears, hitting three fours to Prasidh Krishna and Shreyas Gopal.
Sahil made sure the pressure did not fall on the new batter Abid Mushtaq, who was also giving a strike to the all-rounder, and completed his fifty off 73 balls in the 150th over.
Sahil remained unbeaten at 57 with seven fours to his name, while Abid remained not out at 20 off 31 balls before play was first interrupted due to bad lighting, followed by rain, which eventually led to the match being called off. Only 11 overs were bowled in the final session, and J&K scored 49 runs.
Earlier, with the help of captain Paras Dogra’s half-century, J&K reached 473/6 at Tea despite a comeback by Karnataka in the session, with two wickets to their name.
J&K had a good start to the post-lunch session with Dogra and Wadhwan continuing the momentum from the first session of the day. Wadhwan completed his fifty in the 122nd over. He reached the milestone in just 84 balls. However, he got out after scoring 70 runs.
Meanwhile, Dogra continued to take his team’s score further by rotating the strike well. The 41-year-old completed his fifty off 150 balls. Karnataka finally got the breakthrough in the 143rd over when Shreyas Gopal clean bowled Dogra with a googly.
After being pushed back by J&K on day 1, Karnataka made a strong comeback at the start of day 2 as centurion Shubham Pundir was trapped by Vidyadhar Patil and got caught at mid-wicket.
Abdul Samad, who was looking in good touch, also went down in the next over as Prasidh Krishna got his third wicket. But Captain Dogra led the comeback with Wadhwan as the team inches closer to a massive first innings score in the final.
Brief Scores: Jammu & Kashmir 527/6 (Shubham Pundir 121, Yawer Hassan 88, Kanhaiya Wadhawan 70; Prasidh Krishna 3-90) against Karnataka at stumps on Day 2.
–IANS
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