By: Gowhar Geelani
‘Little Master’ Tendulkar’s unbeaten century (103) and heroics of ‘brilliant’ Yuvraj (85) made history at M A Chidambaram Stadium; Chennai by chasing down the fourth-highest total in Test history, but cricket crazy fans of Kashmir could celebrate something else, as the J&K state team achieved a sensational victory by 44 runs against Haryana in the fifth 4-day match of Ranji Trophy Plate league, denying Haryana a berth in the semi-finals.
At Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium, Rohtak it was Kashmir’s own hero Samiullah Beig who toppled the top order of Haryana in both the innings with his pace, swing and seam, taking nine wickets in the match; six in the first and three in the second innings. Beig removed two batsmen in the very first over and took his third wicket in the second.
This was J&K’s first win this season in the Ranji Trophy Plate league.
On the last day of the match Haryana needed 203 runs to seal a win but Samiullah Beig removed R Dewan and Sunny Singh for nought and Sumit Sharma for 5; Haryana team soon found itself in the tight spot when the score was 22 for 3. Haryana were bundled out for paltry 158, giving J&K a much needed win and five points to avoid embarrassment of finishing last in the points table of Group A.
Earlier, batting first J&K had scored a reasonable 314 in the first innings, thanks to opening batsmen Javed Ahmed (55) and Huwaid Ronga (41); together who managed a decent partnership of 93 runs. ID Singh scored 71 and Samiullah Beig chipped in with classy 48.
Haryana’s dream of a good start in the first innings was crushed by Samiullah Beig when he sent R Dewan and Sunny Singh back to pavilion; the scoreboard read 11 for 3. Sunny Singh was bowled by Beig for a duck. But, Manav Sharma and Sumeet Sharma rescued the sinking ship of Haryana to a very large extent by scoring 98 and 49 respectively. It was again Beig who fought back on the third day by removing Manav Sharma; denying him his century. Then it was Beig all the way, taking six wickets in the first innings for 89 runs in 36.3 overs.
Haryana were all out for 285, 29 runs behind J&K’s total.
A first innings lead is always an advantage. But J&K’s batsmen were a little complacent in the second innings, believing they had a lead, but it was only a thin lead. J&K lost both their openers for just 35 runs, but ID singh (78) scored another brilliant half-century to give some hope to his bowlers. Eventually J&K scored 173 runs, thus setting a tempting target of 203 for Haryana, who couldn’t achieve it falling short by 44.
A Brief Profile of Samiullah Beig:
An engineer by profession Beig has made a name for himself in the sports he loves so much. Yes, cricket. Beig did his masters MIT (Masters in Information Technology) from the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar. He has had three conditioning camps at the MRF Pace Academy, Chennai; where he was trained by the Great Dennis Lily. Sreeshant, Munaf Patel and other Indian pacers were also there when Beig was getting important tips from Lily. Beig has also bowled to Little Master Sachin Tendulkar in the nets.
This 27-year old Kashmiri speedster Samiullah Beig has been a sensation for the second consecutive Ranji season. For him, this was a ‘dream come true’ season. Not only he has caused serious problems to the batsmen with his speed, but he also has established himself as a decent middle order batsmen. That is what we call in cricket terminology making the bat and ball do all the talking. Samiullah Beig managed to take 25 wickets and score 271 runs this season. With four five-wicket hauls Beig has taken 58 wickets and scored 479 runs in his twenty first class matches so far. His best bowling figures: 6/50.
