Shillong (Meghalaya), Mar 30: Meghalaya reached the semifinal of the 1st North East Inter State Friendship Tournament in Nagaland after Manipur defeated Arunachal Pradesh today.
Yesterday, Meghalaya had beaten Arunachal by 8 wickets in Group A. With today’s win for Manipur, Arunachal have been knocked out. Manipur and Meghalaya will meet tomorrow to decide who qualifies as the top team from the group and who goes through as the second place finisher.
After winning the toss at Nagaland Cricket Stadium, Manipur opted to bat first and put up a competitive total of 253 runs with Bikash Singh top scoring with 74. Md Sultan Karim (53 runs) also helped in getting Manipur to a solid score.
Abo Nabam, Yab Niya, Darge Bagra and Techi Doria claimed two wickets each for the Arunachal side to get Manipur all out in 49.3 overs.
In the second innings Arunachal got off to a good start with openers Techi Doria scoring 31 and Neelam Obi 26. However, the disciplined bowling attack from Manipur got the better of Arunachal and they could manage to muster only 120/10 in the 44th over. Kishan Laishram was the pick of the Manipur bowling attack as he struck thrice. Rajkumar Rex, Bishworjit and Md Sultan Karim picked up two wickets each as Manipur won by a margin of 133 runs.
At Sovima Cricket Ground, Mizoram won the toss and elected to field first against Mizoram. Sikkim managed to put up 136 runs on the board, with the bowling duo of Rinsangzela and Remruatdika Ralte picking up five wickets of the Sikkim side with the score at a paltry 52. However, it was the resilience of Palzor Tamang (36), Lee Yong Lepcha (25) and Jeetendra Sharma (17) who made the board ticking before getting all out for a total of 136 runs in 38 overs.
In the 2nd innings, Sikkim bowlers Ankur Malik and Palzor Tamang ran havoc through the batting line-up of Mizoram, claiming six and three wickets respectively. Zothanzuala (23) and Joseph Lalthankhuma (21) were the only players to trouble the opposition but Mizoram were bundled out for 88 runs in 39 overs, giving Sikkim victory by 48 runs.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya Cricket Association Honorary President and NECDC Convenor, Naba Bhattacharjee, unveiled the winners and runners-up trophy in Dimapur today with the Honorary Secretary of the Nagaland Cricket Association.
