Akash Choudhary hit a six off the penultimate ball as lowly Jammu and Kashmir stunned favourites Mumbai by one wicket in a pre-quarterfinal of the Under-23 one-dayer at the Kamla Club ground in Kanpur on Sunday. In the other last 16 match, Kerala defeated Bihar by 116 runs, at Green Park.
J&K, chasing 298 in 50 overs, needed 12 runs to win in the last over with two wickets in hand. Choudhary (36*, 30b, 2x4, 1x6) was at the non-striker’s end. In an attempt to hit big, Auqib Nabi (61, 37b, 3x4, 5x6) was caught by Siddharth Akre off Minad P Manjrekar the first ball of the over.
Choudhary crossed over and took over. He played a dot ball the next delivery, upper cut the third ball for four and stole a double off the fourth ball playing with soft hands to midwicket. He then smashed the winning six over long-off to script a thrilling victory with one ball to spare.
For J&K, openers Ahmad Omar Banday (38) and skipper Shubham Khajuria (30) stitched together 49 runs in 8.4 overs, but after that, they kept losing wickets to be reduced to 110/5. A 69-run sixth-wicket partnership between Muneeb Munaf (34) and Fazil Rashid (56) and an 83-run eighth-wicket stand between Fazil and Auqib Nabi revived the innings.
Vijay D Gohil and skipper Sairaj B Patil shared six wickets for Mumbai with Yashasvi Bhupendra Jaiswal taking two.
{{/usCountry}}Vijay D Gohil and skipper Sairaj B Patil shared six wickets for Mumbai with Yashasvi Bhupendra Jaiswal taking two.
{{/usCountry}}AA Sardesai smashed an unbeaten 150-ball 145, with nine fours and three sixes, as Mumbai piled up 297/6 in 50 overs after being sent to first bat. Vaidik Murkar (33) and Siddharth Akre (72) also contributed. Choudhary underlined his all-round potential with seam bowling, bagging 3/58 in nine overs.