The first day of the 3rd Late G Rio Memorial U-19 (Boys) Inter District Tournament witnessed four matches being played at two venues, Nagaland Cricket Stadium and Sovima Cricket Ground, Chumoukedima.
In the afternoon match of the day played at Sovima Cricket Ground, Mokokchung beat Tuensang by 89 runs. Batting first after winning the toss, Mokokchung scored a competitive total of 142 all out in their allotted 25 overs. Basant scored 42 runs while Akash Kumar scored 31 runs for Mokokchung while Rohit Shah contributed 20.
For Tuensang, Changsomba was the pick of the bowlers with a bowling figure of 4-0-26-4 while Gautam ended with a figure of 3/17 in his quota of 5 overs.
Chasing the target, Tuensang never seemed like they would win the match. They lost their opener batsman Monu Kumar in the very second ball of the inning and lost their second wicket Gautan Singh cheaply when the scoreboard showed only 3 runs on the board.
For Tuensang, captain Rajesh (10 runs) and a few big shots from the bat of Atsali Sangtam (25 runs) during the latter part of the match saw their team cross the 50-runs mark. Tuensang eventually finished at 53 all out in 13.5 overs.
Imnawapang Walling was the best bowler for Mokokchung with 3 wickets to his name conceding no runs in 1 over. Rohit and Amongti took 3 wickets and 2 wickets respectively.
In the other matches, two first timers in the tournament Chumoukedima and Niuland registered wins in their respective games while Wokha beat Peren in the last match of the day.
Wokha 169/9) defeated Peren (79/10) by 90 runs. Chumoukedima (115/0) defeated Kohima (114/8) by 10 wickets. Niuland (151/7) defeated Dimapur (133/7) by 18 runs.
Tomorrow, in the afternoon match at Sovima Cricket Ground, Mokokchung will play against Chumoukedima who are considered as favorites to lift the trophy.
