Haryana defeat J & K by eight wickets

Faridabad: Fine batting by Jatinder Singh (81*) and Rajesh Puri (47) enabled Haryana to beat Jammu and Kashmir team by eight wickets in the North Zone Ranji Trophy one day league cricket match played at Nahar Singh stadium here on Sunday.

The match was delayed by half an hour due to overnight dew. Hence the umpires decided to have 48 overs a side match.

Parender Sharma won the toss for Haryana and asked J & K to bat first. Ajay Bhatti (3) was out cheaply off the bowling of Vineet Jain with the total at 11. Ranjeet Bali (19) and Kanwaljeet (42) took the score to 52 when Bali gave a return catch to Parender Sharma. Then Ashwani Gupta and Kanwaljeet added 57 runs for the third wicket. Once this partnership was broken due to the run out dismissal of Gupta (33) J & K batsmen fumbled and the side were all out for 178 runs in 46.4 overs due to a tight bowling spell by Manish Sakhalkar who captured four wickets at the cost of 32 runs.

In the face of a modest target, Jatinder Singh played a brillant knock of 81 out out with the help of five boundaries. He played his shots with utmost elegance and was ably supported by Rajesh Puri who scored a brisk 47. Haryana lost only two wickets both of which were taken by Sanjay Sharma.