DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 30 (MExN): Nagaland made easy work of Manipur at the Gokulbhai Somabhai Patel Stadium, Nadiad (Gujarat) on Sunday to take the win total for the state to 3 matches in the Vijay Hazare Cup. Electing to field first, Nagaland’s pace duo of Arun Chauhan and Ravi Maurya engineered a collapse of the Manipur top order irreparably damaging chances of posting a big total. Nagaland entered the field without two of its frontline bowlers, who are out with injury. Manipur lost 3 wickets in the first 3 overs before recovering to stitch a half century 4th wicket stand between Bonny Chingangbam and Yashpal Singh. Chauhan struck in the second ball of the first over to send opener Lakhan Arjun Rawat packing for a duck. Rawat’s opening partner wicket-keeper P. Prafullomani followed in the next over sending Maurya’s 4th delivery for a catch to Pawan KB. His stay at the crease lasted 5 balls for 3 runs. Chauhan struck again in the third over to trap Jayanta LBW, who scored a 4 ball 1. Manipur’s score at the fall of the third wicket read 9 in 2.3 overs. Chingangbam and Singh held the innings till the 19th before the former fell to a caught and bowl from spinner Imliwati at 25. Thereafter wickets fell at regular intervals with the Manipur batsmen unable to set any meaningful partnerships. Singh topscored with 41 eventually bowled by captain Jonathan Rongsen. Middle order bastman Priyojit K finished with 35 and was the 8th to go falling to a delivery from Hokaito Zhimomi. Abrar Kazi wrapped up the innings in style in the 44th over clean bowling tail-ender Bishworjit with the score at 144. His partner Rex at the other end was scoreless without facing a ball. Chauhan, Kazi, Imliwati and Zhimomi finished with 2 wickets each. Maurya and Rongsen took 1 apiece. Nagaland looked strong in the run chase with a solid 59 run first wicket stand between openers Nitesh and Sedezhalie. Nitesh, who scored 41, fell to Bishworjit in the 15th over with the team’s score at 61. Sedezhalie (52 not out) and Pawan (50 not out) batted through the end chasing down the win target in 34.2 overs. The win took Nagaland’s record in the tournament to 3 wins and 3 losses with 2 matches to go in Plate Group-D. In the other games, the state team had defeated Meghalaya and Sikkim while losing to Puducherry, Bihar and Uttarakhand. Nagaland is scheduled to face Arunachal Pradesh on October 2 and Mizoram on October 6.
