Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Jammu & Kashmir scripted history by reaching their maiden Ranji Trophy semifinal after 67 years after beating 2021 winners Madhya Pradesh by 56 runs in the quarter-final at Indore on February 9.
Auqib Nabi’s outstanding match figures of 12 for 110 secured a historic win for J&K. Madhya Pradesh started Day 4 on 87/5, needing 204 runs to win, but lost Venkatesh Iyer early. Saransh Jain kept their hopes alive with a fighting 64, but Nabi had the final say, bowling one that came back in to beat the former’s defence. At 211 for 9, the last-wicket pair of Aryan Pandey and Kuldeep Sen kept J&K at bay by adding 23 before Yudhvir Singh clean bowled Pandey to seal victory.
Earlier, J&K stormed back into the game after being bowled out for 194 thanks largely to Nabi’s 7-40, pocketing a slender 42-run lead. Then MP fought back to leave J& K reeling at 73 for 5 in the second innings, before their lower order led a jailbreak courtesy of Abid Mushtaq (41) and Vanshraj Sharma (54).
Even so, at 183 for 9, MP were looking at a sub-250 target but ended up conceding a 65-run stand for the tenth wicket between Sunil Kumar and Yudhvir that ended up giving J& K the cushion that eventually helped pull off victory.
