Quadri’s six-for in J’khand win

Continuing his recent brilliant form, leg-spinner Samar Quadri wreaked havoc on Services to help Jharkhand cruise to a nine-wicket victory in their last Ranji Trophy encounter of the 2014-15 season. Though a little expensive, Quadri was the wrecker-in-chief with figures of six for 102 from 21.5 overs to finish the visitors’ second innings for 235 and thereby giving his team’s batsmen a target of only 79 runs for an outright win.
Chasing the paltry target, Jharkhand lost opener Ishan Kishan early but Man of the Match Shiv Gautam (34, 24 balls, 6x4, 1x6) joined Sumit Kumar (42, 33 balls, 7x4, 1x6) to see there were no further hiccups. In fact, the duo scored at a brisk pace to complete the formalities in just 12.1 overs as 66 runs came in the last 7.1 overs after Kishan’s departure.
Earlier, facing a first-innings deficit of 157 runs, Services failed to gather any momentum in their second essay as Quadri made their lives miserable on the third-day track at Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur on Sunday. After pacer Rituraj Singh castled opener Soumik Chatterjee with only two runs on board, Services’ other opener Sumit Singh (35) did a little rescue job with first-down Anshul Gupta (32). The duo stitched together a valuable 53-run partnership for the second wicket but the floodgates opened when Sumit’s stumps were rattled by Quadri.
After being reduced to 127/7, Yashpal Singh (51) and Saurabh Kumar (65) briefly resisted with a 71-run stand for the eighth wicket, but Services struggled to put together any other meaningful partnership, as they folded for 235 inside 65 overs.
Quadri returned with a match haul of eight for 152 but match referee Valmik Buch chose Gautam as the Man of the Match for his massive 150 runs in the first innings and quickfire 34 in the second essay. With six points from the match, Jharkhand finished their campaign on 21 points from eight encounters, while Services ended with eight points from as many encounters.