Riding on Shahbaz Nadeem’s second List A five-wicket haul, Jharkhand qualified to the next round of the Vijay Hazare Trophy with a comprehensive 6 wicket win over Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

After being invited to bat first, the J&K openers – Ahmed Bandy and Pranav Gupta- departed after scoring 11 each to leave their team reeling at 39 for 2. But a 66-run partnership between Owais Shah (59) and Parvez Rasool (45 off 40 balls) steadied the ship before Nadeem changed the course of the match by dismissing Rasool. Kaushal Singh then dismissed Puneet Bisht (4) and Ram Dayal (3) in quick succession to reduce J&K to 123 for 5. A 42-run stand between Shah and Manik Gupta (26) stopped the rot for a while but Shah’s dismissal in 39th over opened the floodgates as Nadeem took four wickets off his last three overs to restrict J&K to only 184.

In reply, Jharkhand made a shaky start as Ishan Kishan departed after scoring only 2. But an 81-run second-wicket partnership between Shasheem Rathour (36) and Kumar Deobrat (78) set the tone for an easy chase. Deobrat shared another fifty-plus stand with Saurabh Tiwary (30) before Dhoni finished off the proceedings with a quickfire knock. The former India skipper, who hit two fours and a six, was unbeaten on 19 when the winning run was scored.

Brief scores:

Jharkhand 185/4 ( Kumar Deobrat 78, Anshuman Singh 2-19) beat Jammu and Kashmir 184/10 (Owais Shah 59, Shahbaz Nadeem 5-42) by six wickets.