1st Plate Cricket Tournament : Bimol takes CRAU to win over YWC (P)
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 12 2014: A fine all round show with both the ball and bat from Bimol took CRAU to a win against YWC (P) by 12 runs in the 1st Plate Cricket Tournament underway at Luwangpokpa Cricket Stadium, Luwangshangbam today.

On winning the toss, CRAU opted to bat and managed to put 110 runs on the score board.

Bimol led the way with a carefully scripted score of 25 runs off 39 balls followed by Seityajit with 25 runs off 41 balls and Amitkumar 20 runs off 44 balls.

With the pitch offering a lot of bounce and swing, the match turned out to be a low scoring match and Nivas of YWC (P) kept a tight line and length to scalp four wickets.

While Bimol stood ground at the other end the incisive bowling from the YWC (P) bowlers led by Niwas kept the batsmen under a tight spell with wickets falling at regular interval.

It was only when Seityajit came to the pitch that CRAU somehow stabilised and teaming up with Bimol lend some credibility to the total score of the team with Amitkumar also chipping in with a valuable 20 off 44 balls.

For YWC (P), Nivas was ably assisted by Priyobarta who scalped two wickets.

CRAU wrapped up their innings at 110 all out in the allotted 30 overs.

Set a modest target of 111, YWC (P) however wilted under pressure to be bowled out for 98 runs in 29.1 overs with Bimol of CRAU leading the charge and scalping three wickets.

Bode also chipped in with two vital wickets.

Extracting bounce and swing from the pitch, the bowlers of CRAU did well to keep the batsmen of YWC(P) under a tight leash never letting them off the hook.

Shitaljit of CRAU not only kept guard with a patient knock of 25 runs off 42 balls, but nearly took his team to the target but he fell short when he misread the line and length of a good delivery and lost his wicket.

The other notable contributor was Nikol who scored 16 runs off 26 balls.

After Shitaljit departed, none of the other batsmen made any significant contributions though they did chip in with some single digit runs to take their team within sniffing distance of the target of 111 .

However with the bowlers of CRAU doing a fine job in picking regular wickets coupled with some fine fielding, the frustration of YWC (P) batsmen grew with each ball that was delivered.

Instead of playing the ball by its merit, most of the batsmen of YWC (P) resorted to some wild shots which ultimately proved to be their undoing.

For his fine show with the bat and ball (25 runs and three wickets), Bimol of CRAU walked away with the match award.

PCC (Mayai Koibi) will take on ESU (Wangkhei) in tomorrow's match.

Today's match umpires were Anil and Kennedy.

The tournament is being organised by the Manipur Cricket Association to promote the sport of cricket here.

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