Jammu and Kashmir beat Services by 55 runs

New Delhi: An unbeaten century by Ashwani Gupta (137) and fine bowling by Kanvaljit Singh (3/50) helped Jammu and Kashmir beat Services by 55 runs in their fourth one-day North Zone Ranji Trophy league tie here today.

Put in to bat, J & K made 285 for the loss of eight wickets in the allotted 50 overs and then bowled out the hosts for 230 in 45 overs.

The visitors began disastrously, losing Ranjit Bali on one and Kanvaljit Singh seven runs later. Amitpal (41) then joined Ashwani Gupta in a 104-run partnership for the third wicket. Amitpal Singh was run out at 112 and new man in Shashi Kumar (4) followed him soon after. Ashwani Gupta and Dhruv Mahajan (29) then added 69 runs for the fifth wicket to strenqthen the J & K innings.

Services began their chase badly, losing their top five batsmen for just 71 runs as J & K seamers Vijay Sharma (2/40), Surinder Singh (2/22) and Sanjay Sharma (2/28) bowled a tight line. C.D.Thomson (50) and Amit Nadkarni (73) steadied the innings putting on 79 for the sixth wicket, before J & K skipper Kanvaljit Singh (3/50) had Thomson caught by Amitpal.

Kanvaljit Singh then went on to take the wickets of M.V.Rao and Pradeep Maitrey to dismiss any hopes Services had of winning the match.

For J & K Kanvaljit Singh took three wickets giving away 50 runs while Vijay Sharma, Surinder Singh and Sanjay Sharma claimed two wickets each.