Ranjeet Bali anchors J & K innings

Chamba: Jammu & Kashmir managed to score a respectable total of 249 runs in their first innings again Himachal Pradesh which folded up eight minutes before the scheduled close on the opening day of their second Ranji Trophy four-day league match at the Police stadium here on Sunday.

Opting to bat first, J & K lost their opener Rajesh Gill (2) in the second over of the innings, bowled by left arm pace bowler Parveen Sharma. Ranjeet Bali (80) and Kanvaljit Singh (38) added 117 runs for the second wicket before the latter snicked an incoming delivery from Panta to wicket keeper Arun Verma. He struck two hits to fence during his knock of 87 balls.

Ashwani Gupta (25) was also looking into touch but was run out while attempting a non existent single. Ranjeet Bali played a sheet anchor role. He stayed at crease for 176 minutes and faced 132 balls which included nine hits to fence and three huge sixes. He and Dhruv Mahajan (22) added 40 runs for the sixth wicket. Mahajan was then bowled by off spinner Nischal Gaur at 186. Ranjeet was also bowled by the bowler with only one run added to the total.

Towards the end, Sanjay Sharma (19*) and Pardeep Bali (11) showed some defiance before the J & K innings folded up for 249 runs in 88.4 overs, eight minutes before the scheduled close. Left arm spinner Jaswant Rai was the most successful bowler as he dismissed three batsmen for 64 runs off 22.4 overs. Nischal Gaur and Shakti Singh got two wickets each for 43 and 42 runs respectively.