Jammu and Kashmir scripted history with a convincing 56-run victory over formidable Madhya Pradesh in the quarterfinals to seal berth in the first-ever semifinals of the prestigious Ranji Trophy at Holkar Stadium at Indore today.
Earlier, resuming from 87 for five, Madhya Pradesh batters despite making valiant efforts went downfighting to lose the match by a margin of 56 runs, scoring 234 runs.
Saransh Jain top scored with 64 runs off 81 balls, studded with seven fours and one six, while Shubham Sharma(32), Himanshu Mantri (31), Aryan Pandey (22) and Yash Dubey (20) were the other contributors.
Auqib Nabi, who was wrecker-in-chief in the first innings, taking seven wickets, emerged pick of the bowlers to take five wickets by conceding 70 runs in his 24 overs, while Abid Mushtaq bagged three and Sunil Kumar claimed one.
Earlier, on day-3, Vanshaj Sharma and Abid Mushtaq's lower-order fireworks, capped by a defiant 65-run last-wicket stand with Sunil Kumar, propelled J&K to a challenging 291-run target.
J&K battled to 248 in their second innings, extending their 42-run first-innings lead into a formidable victory equation. Vanshaj Sharma starred unbeaten on 54 off 92 balls(3x4, 1x6), with Abid Mushtaq (41), Abdul Samad (32), Sunil Kumar (26), and Yudhvir Singh (18) providing crucial support.
Madhya Pradesh's Kuldeep Sen claimed 4 wickets, while Venkatesh Iyer and Ramveer Singh Gurgar shared three wickets apiece.
Earlier, J&K's first-innings 194 was anchored by Shubham Khajuria's 60 and Yudhvir Singh's 41.MP crumbled to 152, undone by Aaqib Nabi's (7/40 in the first innings) and Sunil Kumar's three wickets.
Kuldeep Sen ripped throughwith five for 66, backed by Kumar Kartikeya Singh (3) and Aryan Pandey (2).
The JKCA Administrators, BrigAnil Gupta and Vidhya Bhaskar, Ajay Sharma, Head Coach; CAC Members--AbdulQayoom, Vijay Sharma and Meenu Singh Slathia, and Selectors--Sarabjeet Singh(Chairperson), Dhruv Mahajan and Arshad Bhat deserve salutations for this remarkable achievement.
While describing the win as historic, Member Administration JKCA has congratulated the team members for this great achievement.
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