Excelsior Sports Correspondent
Mumbai, Oct 20: Young opener Shubham Khajuria played a responsible innings of 90 and helped Jammu and Kashmir to recover from a poor start on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Group C match against Andhra Pradesh at the Brabourne Stadium here today.
Khajuria held one end after his team, inserted in by Andhra captain Hanuma Vihari, lost two quick wickets for only 18 on a track with a tinge of green on it.
The 21-year-old opener struck 2 sixes and 9 fours in his 238-ball vigil as he added 99 runs with Parvez Rasool (45 in 114 balls).
Both the batsmen played sensibly and applied themselves almost to the perfection and waited for loose deliveries against the disciplined bowling attack of Andhra Pradesh. Shubham played some extra ordinary drives and cuts and hit the ball with fluidity and grace, while Parvez restricted his usual explosive instincts to negotiate the rival bowlers, who were bowling with nagging line and teasing length.
Khajuria fell after tea and at stumps J&K had advanced to 205 for 6, with Bandeep Singh (14) and Punit Bisht (12) at the crease when the stumps were drawn today.
Earlier, put into bat, J&K were struggling at 51/3 when Rasool joined Khajuria in the middle. Adil Reshi (1), Ian Dev Singh (13) and Amir Aziz (15) were back to the pavilion at the score of 51 runs. Ian was shaping well but he dismissed by speedster Siva Kumar on what looked like to be a doubtful decision. Skipper Mithun Manhas fell for 7 runs.
Khajuria, in his first-class career’s 20th game, missed a second century when his defense was breached by left arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt, who got appreciable turn and bounce from the track to take two wickets.
Medium pacers P Vijay Kumar and Siva Kumar shared the other four wickets equally.
Brief scores: J&K 205 for 6 (S Khajuria 90, P Rasool 45; P Vijay Kumar 2 for 40, Siva Kumar 2 for 32, B Bhatt 2 for 71).
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