Services fail to fathom Qayoom's wiles

Services and Jammu & Kashmir were in the midst of an evenly contested battle in their North Zone Ranji Trophy game at the Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. Services stumbled to 162 after a promising start but by stumps they had pulled back three J&K wickets for 77.

The visitors won the toss and chose to take first strike. Skipper Sanjay Verma and Harish Bhaskar put on 56 for the first wicket after which three wickets fell without much movement in the score. Bhaskar and Sarabjeet Singh redressed the balance with a 49 run stand that took Services to 135/3. Then a sudden collapse saw the last seven wickets tumble for just 27 runs. The beginning of the end was Bhaskar's dismissal for 61 (153 balls, 8 fours) by J&K skipper and new ball bowler Abdul Qayoom.

Qayoom finished with 5/42, ably assisted by Ashwani Gupta who scalped 3/22. The hosts were quickly in trouble of their own, losing three wickets for 39. Ashwani Gupta (11) and Dhruv Mahajan (27) then recouped to take them through to close of play without any further setbacks.