da lvbet： Services and Jammu & Kashmir were in the midst of an evenly contestedbattle in their North Zone Ranji Trophy game at the Maulana AzadStadium in Jammu
Sankhya Krishnan11-Nov-2000Services and Jammu & Kashmir were in the midst of an evenly contestedbattle in their North Zone Ranji Trophy game at the Maulana AzadStadium in Jammu. Services stumbled to 162 after a promising start butby stumps they had pulled back three J&K wickets for 77.The visitors won the toss and chose to take first strike. SkipperSanjay Verma and Harish Bhaskar put on 56 for the first wicket afterwhich three wickets fell without much movement in the score. Bhaskarand Sarabjeet Singh redressed the balance with a 49 run stand thattook Services to 135/3. Then a sudden collapse saw the last sevenwickets tumble for just 27 runs. The beginning of the end wasBhaskar’s dismissal for 61 (153 balls, 8 fours) by J&K skipper and newball bowler Abdul Qayoom.Qayoom finished with 5/42, ably assisted by Ashwani Gupta who scalped3/22. The hosts were quickly in trouble of their own, losing threewickets for 39. Ashwani Gupta (11) and Dhruv Mahajan (27) thenrecouped to take them through to close of play without any furthersetbacks.