Ranji Trophy 2018-19, Elite C, Round 4, Day 1: Services claim lead after J&K out for 95

Nine wickets were shared by Arun Bamal  and Diwesh Pathania as Jammu & Kashmir crashed to 95 all out against hosts Services on day one of their 2018-19 Ranji Trophy Elite Group C round four match at Palam. By the end of play, Services held a lead of 36 with seven wickets left having lost three to Parvez Rasool, including the openers Aanshul Gupta and Navneet Singh for fifties.

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Rasool’s decision to bat on a wintery Delhi morning came a cropper as Pathania quickly had them at 6/2 inside five overs by bowling Ahmad Omar Bandy for 0 and having Ian Dev Singh caught behind first ball. Shubham Khajuria was the top-scorer for J&K with 44 from 56 balls before he was third out at 58, caught and bowled by Bamal to hand the left-arm spinner his first wicket.

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Bamal, playing his second first-class game, proceeded to run through the batting. Rasool and Irfan Pathan were dismissed lbw and stumped during the 22nd over, and then Bamal and Pathania combined to grab the last four wickets for five runs in less than three overs. The last two fell to Bamal in the 32nd over as J&K’s innings ended with a whimper.

Bamal, 21, finished with figures of 7.5-2-13-5 and Pathania had 4/30 from 12.

The visiting team used seven bowlers before tea but to no avail as Services reached 66 for no loss at the interval, of which 44 were from the bat of Navneet.  The opener duly crossed 50 before he was stumped off Rasool, who two balls later trapped Ravi Chauhan lbw for 0. Shortly before stumps, Rasool took a return catch of Gupta on 59.

Brief scores: Services 131/3 (Gupta 59, Navneet 58) lead Jammu & Kashmir 95 (Bamal 5/13, Pathania 4/30) by 36 runs