Imphal, December 15 2009: Ng Rajesh of CHAMP snatched victory for his eam from the jaws of defeat at the hands of TRAU on the 3rd day of the ongoing 1st Heritage Cup, 2009 being played at the Luwangpokpa Cricket Ground, Luwangshangbam.

With his placed precariously at 47 for 6, in walked Rajesh, he not only steadied the innings but also started scoring at a fast pace.

When he finally departed after a personal score of 35 from 31 balls, the target of 116 runs from 20 overs set by TRAU was well within the grasp of his team.

Jodiba, who was involved in a 56 runs partnership with Rajesh, remained not out on 20 from 19 balls when victory was finally achieved at the end of the 19th over.

Tejbanta also contributed 17 runs off 17 balls towards CHAMP's win.

Heeralal was the pick of the TRAU bowlers claiming two wickets while giving away only 8 runs in his quota of 4 overs.

The other successful bowlers were Safran and Priyojit who claimed one wicket each.

Earlier, electing to bat after winning the toss, TRAU scored 115 runs for the loss of six wickets in their allotted 20 overs.

TRAU's innings progressed steadily with substantial scores from the top order.

With the score card reading 91 for 2 at the end of the 15th, TRAU was ideally placed to step on the accelerator and put up a sizable total.

But it was precisely at this point that the TRAU innings fell apart, losing 4 wickets for the addition of only 24 runs in the last 5 overs.

Here again, Rajesh was instrumental in restricting the TRAU total with a haul of 2 wickets giving away just 18 runs from 4 overs.

Jodiba, Ravi and William also lend support claiming one wicket each.

For TRAU, Kipgen with 32 off 45, Chingtam with 27 off 27 and Naoba with 29 runs off 28 balls were the main scorers.

The obvious choice of the Man of the Match award, Ng Rajesh of CHAMP received a cash award of Rs 1000/- from Kh Naocha, co chairman, organizing committee of the tournament.

Talking to reporters at the end of the award ceremony, Rajesh admitted he was under a bit of a pressure initially, as 6 wickets had already fallen but kept his cool and decided to concentrate on keeping his wicket intake as he believed runs would follow naturally.

He also expressed satisfaction and happiness at the way the 1st ever T20 tournament is being organized and hoped more such tournaments will be organized regularly in future.

Blue Hawk will take on THAU in the first match while CYCLONE will clash with MODEL in the second match tomorrow.

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