Vijay Hazare Trophy : Manipur suffer 9-wicket loss to Uttarakhand
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 26 2018:
Manipur suffered a huge 9-wicket loss to Uttarakhand in the Round IV, Plate tie of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy at Gokulbhai Somabhai Patel Stadium, Nadiad today.
This is the second loss suffered by the State team in the ongoing tournament having lost to Puducherry by 8 wickets in their maiden domestic match on September 19.Uttarakhand won the toss and let Manipur to bat first wherein the State players managed a paltry 125 runs for all wickets down in 37.4 overs.
Manipur suffered a huge Set back with early two wicket loss in the form of Lakhan Arjun Rawat (10 runs) and Jayanta (4 runs).
P Prafullomani and Yaspal Singh however had a good understanding and helped Manipur cross 50 run mark in the 14.6 over.
Prafullomani who let Yaspal Singh to strike more went out on Karanveer Kaushal's bowling making a total of 13 runs off 39 balls.
Much hyped guest player, Hrithik Kanojia produced yet another poor performance to leave the crease for a duck (lbw) while Priyojit K made 8 runs before he departed at the stroke of 90 runs in 23.5 overs.
Yashpal Singh continued to man the already dented local side and reached his half century mark off 74 balls before guiding Manipur to 100 runs in 27.3 overs.
The conditioned worsened as Uttarakhand clinched three wickets in a span of almost four overs and held Manipur at 108 for 8 in 31.5 over.
The innings ended with the loss of Yaspal Singh who made a handsome 76 runs as the lower orders proved easy prey to the Uttarakhand bowlers.
Sunny enjoyed a three wicket haul in this innings while Shubham Saudiyal, Mayank Mishra, Malolan Rangarajan claimed two wickets each.
Karanveer Kausal took a single in this innings and helped Uttarakhand hold Manipur for 125 runs in the first innings.
It was a quick chase for Uttarakhand side as Vineet Saxena (50 runs) and Arya Sethi (52) piled up 101 runs before Karanveer (18 runs) and Vineet helped Uttarakhand ease to the target in 26.2 overs.
RK Rex made his name in the scoresheet for the lone wicket of the Uttarakhand (run out) .
Fans disappointed
Two humiliating defeats of the State team in their debut tournament has left cricket fans in the State disappointed.
Only few players in the squad had proved their worm so far and the remaining players including the guest players and the team have not lived up the expectations the fans had before.
Be it in the bowling or batting the State team have failed terribly and could not withstand 50 overs.
It was only against Sikkim, the weakest of all teams, that Manipur had shone over in this tournament.
The future is dark if the State team continue with the same pace.