Jammu & Kashmir wins the Vijay Hazare Trophy by shocking Madhya Pradesh, the defending Ranji champions

When they defeated the reigning Ranji champions Madhya Pradesh by two wickets in a high-scoring Vijay Hazare Trophy Group D match on Saturday at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, Jammu & Kashmir secured one of the most memorable wins in their history. This victory took place at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.

When Madhya Pradesh was asked to bat, opener Yash Dubey slammed a run-a-ball 121 (13 fours), and his opening partner Abhishek Bhandari made 74 (81 balls; 9 fours, 2 sixes), contributing to the state’s massive score of 342 for 9 when they were finished.

The foundation was laid by half-centuries from opener Vivrant Sharma (69), Henan Nazir (68), and Abdul Samad (66), and then Abid Mushtaq played a fantastic counter-attacking knock of 42 from 19 balls to set up the victory for Jammu and Kashmir. However, Jammu & Kashmir were able to pull off a heist.

Mushtaq hit three sixes and as many boundaries while competing against Avesh Khan and Kuldeep Sen. He also faced up against other bowlers. However, the stage was set for drama when Avesh (3/86) got rid of him in the 47th over, with Jammu and Kashmir needing to score 31 runs off 21 balls.

Sahil Lotra, who was not out for 23 after batting from 11th base and hitting four fours, kept his cool to finish off the chase with four balls to spare.

After Mushtaq’s dismissal, Auqib Nabi (11 not out; 9 balls, 1 four) lent a fine support as the duo held on in a match-winning unbroken partnership for the ninth wicket that accumulated 34 runs without being broken.

However, by the end of the first innings, it appeared to be an impossible chase for Jammu and Kashmir hitters, who had begun their innings on a cautious note.

Opener Sharma and Jatin Wadhwan, who was 17, put up 81 runs from the same number of deliveries, but off-spinner Saransh Jain bowled both of the batters with the addition of only 19 runs, which derailed their chase.

After the loss of their skipper, Shubham Pundir (6), who was out for a low score, they were in a dire situation since they required 230 runs from 167 balls.

However, Samad was able to limit the damage by partnering with Nazir to score 117 runs. With the addition of only 11 runs, Avesh was able to eliminate both of them.

After then, it was Mushtaq who played a beautiful counter-attacking knock to keep Jammu and Kashmir in the hunt. This kept Jammu and Kashmir in the chase. The team from Baroda moved to the top of the standings in Group D, followed by the teams from Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir based on their net-run rate.