Sovima, 20 April (MTNews): Two young districts Chümoukedima and Niuland will be battling it out on 22 April to be crowned the new champions of the 3rd Late G Rio Memorial U-19 (Boys) Inter-district Tournament. Both the districts have performed magic with the bat and the ball en route to the finals and both had convincingly topped their own pools in the league stages with zero losses and a perfect 8 pointers in 4 matches played.
In the first semifinal match between Niuland and Mokokchung played at Nagaland Cricket Stadium, Niuland managed to put up 145 runs on the board in 36.5 overs while Mokokchung could garner only 80 runs all out from 41.5 overs falling short by 65 runs for Niuland to book their berth in the finals.
For Niuland, Vishal Sahani contributed 49 runs in 55 balls while Md Shahin contributed 46 runs in 78 balls. Basant was the pick of the bowlers for Mokokchung as he took 3 wickets in 8.0 overs.
In the run chase, Mokokchung’s Salangdangba and Imnawapang Walling were the only notable scorers as they made 21 and 16 runs respectively. Jatin, who was later named the player of the match, was the pick of the Niuland bowling attack as he picked up 5 wickets in 10 overs while Anil Gupta scalped 3 wickets in 7 overs to help Niuland win with a comfortable margin of 65 runs.
In the second semifinal match between Chümoukedima and Dimapur played at Sovima Cricket Ground, it was the carnage of Mughavi Sumi who made 75 runs in 64 balls and the notable contribution of Aloto Sumi 29 runs who helped Chümoukedima make an imposing target of 141 runs as target for Dimapur to win. Kavito Yeptho, who took 5 wickets in 6.3 overs, was the pick bowler for Dimapur.
In the run chase, Dimapur had hiccups early on and Anirudh Yadav 29 runs from 52 balls was the only batsman who could manage to get a double figure score as the other batsmen failed to rise to the occasion.
Khrievitso Kense started the carnage with a 4 wicket haul in 6.3 overs and Aloto Sumi picked up 3 wickets in 5 overs to complete the win for Chümoukedima and book their place in the final against Niuland.
The final of the 3rd edition of Late G Rio Memorial U-19 (Boys) Inter-district Tournament between Chümoukedima and Niuland will be played on 22 April at Nagaland Cricket Stadium, Sovima from 09:00AM.