Dimapur defeats Niuland to retain Inter District Senior Men’s Cricket Trophy

Sovima, 29 May (MTNews): The final match of the Inter-District Senior Men’s Cricket Tournament 2023 was played between Dimapur and Niuland at the Nagaland Cricket Stadium where the defending champions trounced Niuland to be once again crowned champions of the coveted Senior Men’s Trophy.

After winning the toss, Dimapur opted to bat first and their opening pair gave their team a good start as Shamphri Terang and Ben Ozukum contributed with 17 and 32 runs respectively.

However, Dimapur lost Hem Bahadur Chetri who was in sublime form for a naught. Sanjay 44 runs and Oren Ngullie 45 runs played an important innings as they helped the Dimapur team compose a competitive total of 215 runs on the board in 50 overs. Temjentoshi 12 runs and Tohuka Zhimo 18 runs also made important contributions for the Dimapur total.

For the Niuland bowling unit, their wonder boy Vino G Zhimomi struck again as he claimed 3 important wickets in his 10 overs spell conceding only 29 runs with 1 maiden over. He was well supported by Akavi A Yeptho and Jalal who picked 2 wickets each while Anil Gupta settled with 1 wicket.

The Niuland team was brilliant and showed much commitment with their fielding as they managed to restrict Dimapur for 215 runs for them to chase.

After the lunch break, Niuland set out for the run chase but it was team Dimapur who struck first as Afzal Hussain was caught at wide long-on by Hem off Hoponkyu bowling for a naught. Vishal Sahani 12 runs, Wahid Ali 15 runs and Sunil Sharma 14 runs gave Niuland some ray of hope but they were not able to convert their starts to a big one and lost their wickets in quick succession to a tricky bowling spell of the Dimapur team.

Niuland’s captain and the man in sublime form, Hokaito Zhimomi, made a valiant effort at the end with 33 runs but it was never going to be enough and with his dismissal, the title race also all but ended for Niuland.

Tahmeed Rahman shone with the ball for Dimapur as he scalped 4 wickets in 8 overs. Santosh and Hem Bahadur picked up 2 wickets each while Hoponkyu Sangtam and Tohuka Zhimo settled for 1 wicket each. With this Dimapur bowled out Niuland with only 89 runs on the board in 24.0 overs and defended their title with a convincing 126 runs victory.

Man of the Match for the finals was awarded to Tahmeed Rahman for his impressive bowling and picking up 4 wickets in 8 overs with an economy rate of 2.88.