Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh's hopes of making it to the knockouts of the Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) Trophy suffered a jolt when Bhuvneshwar Kumar-led side lost the penultimate league match to Jammu and Kashmir by six wickets at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy, BKC, in Mumbai on Tuesday. This was UP's second defeat in six matches. They are now placed third in Group C with 16 points, behind Delhi and Jharkhand, who have 20 points each.
In their last match on Thursday, UP will require a big win over Jharkhand and will have to rely on other results to secure a place in the quarterfinals. Delhi, who face lowly Arunachal Pradesh, are almost certain to top the group, while the second qualifier will be decided among UP, Jharkhand, and J&K, who will face Haryana in their last game.
Batting first, UP lost three top-order batsmen within the powerplay as Madhav Kaushik (2), Aryan Juyal (19), and Nitish Rana (0) failed to provide a strong start. After that, Priyam Garg (22) and Rinku Singh added 48 runs for the fourth wicket at a decent pace before the former was caught by Abdul Samad off M Ashwin. Rinku was also removed by Ashwin in the 16th over, leaving UP at 99 runs. In the same over, Vipraj Nigam fell victim to Ashwin as well. Shivam Mavi (45) then used the long handle effectively, adding 54 runs with Sameer Rizvi (25) in the remaining 25 balls to push UP to a total of 157 runs.
In reply, J&K's innings started on a contrasting note as Shubham Khajuria and Qamran Iqbal added 60 runs in 5.6 overs. They took on both opening bowlers, being particularly severe on Mohsin Khan, who finished with figures of 4-0-49-2. Vineet Pawar cleaned up Qamran (37) before skipper Paras Dogra was caught by Bhuvneshwar off Mohsin in the next over. Vivrant Sharma did not stay long, falling to Vipraj Nigam. After that, Shubham (85*) and Abdul Samad (22) took the team close to the target before Samad was caught by Vipraj Nigam off Mohsin Khan. Shubham then sealed the game in J&K's favour with two big hits.