Vaibhav stars as Goa rein in J&K

BASIL SYLVESTER PINTO

PANAJI

Hosts Goa suffered early blows as they reached 37 for two in reply to Jammu and Kashmir's 214 on the opening day of their Round VI Group A Cooch Behar Trophy match at GCA Academy ground, Porvorim.

Electing to bat on winning the toss, the visitors' openers Qamran Iqbal 72 (92b, 11x4) and Vivrant 54 (81b, 9x4, 1x6) forged a rollicking 120-run stand before Vivrant departed in the 26th over, falling to part-time bowling of Goa U-19 skipper Deepraj Gaonkar. Qamran who went on to top score for his side fell to another part-time option, Tunish Sawkar, to leave the side in some bother at 131/3 by the 34th over.

From thereon, the northerners crumbled like a deck of cards. Coming into the act was yet another part-time off-break bowler Vaibhav Govekar, who teased the opposition batsmen with his guile and discipline to come up with innings best figures of 4 for 48 from 24.3 overs which included 10 maidens. He was well supported by right-arm medium pacer Nihal S (2-61) and left-arm spinner, Balpreet Singh (2-46), as also part-timers, Tunish and Deepraj, who picked up a key wicket each as J&K's innings folded in 75.3 overs.

In reply, Goa U-19s were rocked early by right-arm medium pacer Sharukh Ahmad Dar (2/19 off 6 overs) and were placed at 11/2 after 3.2 overs, losing opener Vaibhav Govekar (2) and rookie Ketan Nadrek (0) off successive deliveries. Steadying the ship were keeper-opener Aditya Suryawanshi 16* (33b, 4x4) and Kashyap Bakle 9* (31b, 2x4) when stumps were drawn at 37/2 after 12 overs with the hosts still 177 runs in arrears.

Goa coach Vinod Dhamaskar backed his batting unit to overhaul the opposition total. “We may have lost two wickets early, but we have a good batting unit. While Vaibhav was out leg before to a ball that kept low, one-drop bat Ketan succumbed to leg before to an almost full-toss delivery. To follow are Deepraj Gaonkar and Suyash Prabhudessai who are consistent run-getters and Kaustubh as well who is a good batter. We have not had a look at their spin attack yet,” the Goa U-19 coach told 'The Goan Everyday' at end of the day's play.

“The wicket has seen the odd ball turn with invariable bounce. It should not be difficult for us to post a score in excess of 300 tomorrow but it depends on how we start in the morning. It is not a dangerous wicket to bat on,” Dhamaskar assessed.

“We do not have good spinners yet one of our part-timers did a star turn with his off-breaks. The challenge to our batsmen would depend on the quality of our opposition’s spinners but we have got a formidable batting line-up to face up to the test,” the Goa colts coach said.

Brief Scores

Jammu & Kashmir, 1st innings, 214 all out in 75.3 overs (Qamran Iqbal 72, Vivrant 54, Himanshu Chandan 20, Sharukh Ahmed Dar 25*; Vaibhav Govekar 4-48, Nihal Surlkar 2-61, Balpreet Chaddha 2-46, Tunish Sawkar 1-12, Deepraj Gaonkar 1-27) lead Goa, 1st inning, 37 for 2 in 12 overs (Aditya Suryavanshi 16*, Vaibhav Govekar 2, Ketan Nandrekar 0, Kashyap Bakhle 9*; Sharukh Ahmed Dar 2-19) by 177 runs.