Vijay Hazare Trophy: Nagaland Skipper’s century in vain as rains play spoilsport

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 25

A brilliant unbeaten century by Nagaland captain Jonathan Rongsen went in vain as rains played spoilsport and disrupted their opening Vijay Hazare match against Manipur at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Dehradun on September 24.

 Round 1 of the 2019-20 Season of India's premier domestic one-day cricket tournament - Vijay Hazare Trophy kicked off for both Elite and Plate Group on Tuesday.  Thirty-eight teams are competing in the preliminary round which will culminate on October 16.

 Jonathan’s century (104 runs off 150 balls) came as the skipper managed to rescue to team from an imminent collapse with Nagaland losing two quick wickets within the first five over of the match.

 Earlier, Manipur won the toss and chose to field. The decision was proven prudent and rewarded with the wickets of Nagaland’s openers Sedezhalie Rupreo and Oren Ngullie, who fell in quick succession in 3.4 and 4.4 overs respectively, with just 10 runs on the board.  

 However, Jonathan and guest player Srikant Munde stabilised the scoreboard, thereafter, before the latter was run out for 13, at 16.4 overs.

After 18 overs, Nagaland was tottering at 50 runs for 4. However, a 50-run fifth wicket partnership between Jonathan and another outside import, Yogesh Takawale (25 runs) managed to salvage match and raised the score to 96 runs, before the latter fell to Manipur’s Langlonyamba M at 29.1 overs.

Imliwati Lemtur and Aosashi Longchar chipped in 16 and 18 runs respectively to take the overall score to a respectable 207/7 in the allotted 50 overs.  

While, India international Stuart Binny has joined Nagaland team, he did not play the first match.

For Manipur, Rex and Th Kishan led the bowing attacks taking two wickets each in the process while Langlonyamba and Bishworjit took one each. The other wicket came via a run out.

In reply, Manipur too were in a sticky position batting at 44/2 in 8.4 overs, before rain stopped the play..

Later, the match was abandoned entirely and the teams had to settle for 2 points each.  

Nagaland will play Assam next on September 28.

In other Plate Group matches on Tuesday, Meghalaya (318/5) defeated Sikkim (124/10) by 194 runs while Arunachal Pradesh (267/7) suffered a seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Mizoram (268/3).

The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20 season is being across four cities with  Bengaluru, Jaipur and Vadodara hosting the Elite Group matches and the Plate group teams matches in Dehradun.

 The Plate group was introduced later year by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) adding nine states in the process in the domestic season. The states are Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Puducherry, Bihar and Uttarakhand — in the domestic season, and With Bihar earning a promotion to Elite Group by winning the Plate Group last year, Chandigarh was included as replacement this season.

The knockouts matches will start from October 20 - along with the final on October 25

Nagaland XI:
Hokaito Zhimomi, Mughavi Wotsa , Aosashi Longchar, Srikant Munde*, Jonathan Rongsen (C),Yogesh Takawale* (W),Sedezhalie Rupreo, Tahmeed Rahman, Imliwati Lemtur, Oren Ngullie , Nagaho Chishi
*Munde, Takawale along with Stuart Binny are guest players

MANIPUR XI:
Bishworjit, Bonny Chingangbam, Th Kishan ,Shah, P Prafullomani (W), Ajay Singh, Johnson , Rex,Karnajit Y, Langlonyamba M, Priyojit K (C)