SSCB beat J

New Delhi, Feb 28 (UNI) Soumik Chatterjee hit a scintillating 71 runs off just 52 balls as SSCB defeated Jammu and Kashmir by 96 runs in their Ranji Trophy (North Zone) one-day match here today.

Put in to bat by J&K, SSCB were off to a flying start as openers Jasbir Singh (73) and Tahir Khan (27) went after the opposing bowlers.

After the dismissals of Tahir and Jasbir, the momentum slowed a little as Services lost Avishek Sinha (18) and Yashpal Singh (1) cheaply. But Soumik led the charge as the Services batsmen put up a spirited fightback.

Soumik was ably aided by Penta Rao (25), Devender Israni (33) and Narender Kumar (15) as Services put up a massive total of 281 runs for the loss of six wickets.

Chasing a stiff target, J&K suffered a severe setback in the very first over as they lost two wickets with just one run on the board. Ian Dev Singh (46) and Hilal Ahmad (21) tried to rescue the innings before the latter was run out by Penta Rao with the score at 61.

The J&K resistance received another serious jolt as Singh was also dismissed in similar fashion.

The rest of the batsmen failed to put up a fight as the J&K innings folded up for 185 runs.

Brief scores: Services: 281 for six (Jasbir Singh 73, Soumik Chatterjee 71, Sameer Ali 3/43, Sami-Ull-Ah Beigh 3/62) J&K: 185 all out (Ian Dev Singh 46, Arnav Kush 3/37 ) UNI AB KP2333