Ranjit Bali powers J&K to knockout berth

Jammu & Kashmir stormed into the knockout phase of the Ranji Trophy with a four wicket triumph over Himachal Pradesh in their final North Zone league tie at the Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. J&K finished third in the zonal standings with 24 points from their five games, behind Punjab (40) and Delhi (29).

The win was enabled by a sporting declaration from Himachal skipper Anurag Thakur who set the hosts a fourth innings target of 251 in 77 overs. An invaluable 138 from opener Ranjit Bali helped J&K across the finishing line with more than 13 overs to spare. It was a spectacular recovery by J&K who trailed by 140 in the first innings, narrowly avoiding the follow-on.

Resuming at 55/4, Himachal declared just over ten overs into the morning. In that period they exactly doubled their score, losing two wickets in the process. The closure was applied at the fall of onedrop Rahul Panta for a run-a-ball 66 (4 fours, 2 sixes).

A 131 run third wicket stand between Bali and Ashwini Gupta (43) put J&K firmly on the road to victory. After the latter's departure at 193, Bali carried on unperturbed until he was bowled by Nischal Gaur just sixteen runs short of victory. His 138 arrived from 180 balls and featured 14 fours and 4 sixes. J&K lost two more wickets before the winning runs came in the 64th over.