11th Manipur Veteran Cricket Championship Bhogendra takes NAPSA to convincing win
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 30 2014:
Riding on a brilliant all round show from Bhogendra, NAPSA cruised past UCC by nine wickets at the ongoing 11th Manipur Veteran Cricket Championship today.
On winning the toss, UCC opted to bat, but were bundled out for a paltry 139 runs in 30 overs.
Keeping a tight line and length, the bowlers of NAPSA extracted the right amount of bounce and swing from the track to bundle out UCC with Santa leading the way by scalping four wickets.
Ronikumar and Bhogendra chipped in with two valuable wickets each.
Mac Mohan of UCC did put up a fight to lend a semblance of respectability to the total score of his team by scoring an entertaining 43 runs off 55 balls.
L Surjit with 25 runs off 33 balls, Veda Prakash with a painstaking 18 runs off 32 balls and Romio with 11 runs off 17 balls were the other notable contributors to the total of UCC.
The efforts of Mac Mohan however went in vain as wickets continued to fall regularly.
Faced with the task of overcoming 139 runs, NAPSA made its intention clear from the first ball itself with Bhogendra leading the charge and notching up a whirlwind 52 runs off only 45 balls and carried his bat through the innings.
He was ably aided by Gautam who reached the half century mark off 54 balls and also carried his bat through the innings and a breezy knock from Bipin who scored 14 runs off only 9 balls.
The match was a totally one sided one with the batsmen of NAPSA making merry and despatching all loose balls to the boundary with ease.
Displaying better skills and mastery over the ball, the NAPSA batsmen took runs at will on either side of the wicket, leaving the bowlers of UCC a frustrated lot.
The target of 140 runs was easily reached with NAPSA losing only one wicket in 18.1 over of the match.
For his sterling performance with both bat and ball, Bhogendra walked away with the man of the match award.
Tomorrow, MODEL (Chingamakha) will take on REYS (Nagamapal).
The tournament is being organised by the Manipur Veteran Cricket Association, which is affiliated to the Board of Veteran Cricket of India.