Indore, February 9: The Jammu and Kashmir cricket team has made history by reaching the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy for the first time. They secured their spot in the top four by defeating Madhya Pradesh.
In the match held at Holkar Stadium in Indore, Jammu and Kashmir set a target of 291 runs for Madhya Pradesh in the fourth innings. Madhya Pradesh fell short, bowled out for 234 runs, losing the match by 56 runs.
Madhya Pradesh won the toss and opted to bowl first. Jammu and Kashmir scored 194 runs in their first innings, with opener Shubham Khajuria contributing 60 runs and captain Paras Dogra adding 33 runs.
For Madhya Pradesh, Kuldeep Sen took 5 wickets, while Kumar Kartikeya claimed 3 and Aryan Pandey took 2 wickets.
Madhya Pradesh struggled in their first innings, getting all out for 152 runs, trailing by 42 runs. Yash Dubey was the top scorer for them with 58 runs.
In Jammu and Kashmir’s bowling attack, Akib Nabi took 7 wickets, and Sunil Kumar secured 3 wickets.
In their second innings, Jammu and Kashmir managed to score 248 runs. Vanshraj Sharma was the highest scorer with 54 runs, followed by Abid Mushtaq with 41, Abdul Samad with 32, Sunil Kumar with 26, and Kanhaiya Vadhavan with 23 runs.
Kuldeep Sen took 4 wickets for Madhya Pradesh, while Venkatesh Iyer and Ramveer Singh Gurjar each took 3 wickets.
With a first-innings lead of 42 runs, Jammu and Kashmir set a target of 291 runs for Madhya Pradesh. Unfortunately, Madhya Pradesh’s second innings also fell short, ending at 234 runs, with Saransh Jain scoring the highest at 64 runs.
Akib Nabi continued his impressive performance, taking 5 wickets in the second innings. Abid Mushtaq took 3 wickets, while Sunil Kumar and Yudveer Singh each claimed 1 wicket.
Akib Nabi, who took a total of 12 wickets in the match, was named Player of the Match.