1st Plate Cricket Tournament : THAU score over OSCAR in low scoring match
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 19 2014: In a battle between the bat and the ball, it was the ball which dominated and resulted in a low scoring match, with THAU carving out a four wicket win over OSCAR in the 1st Plate Cricket Tournament being staged at Luwangpokpa Cricket Stadium, Luwangshangbam today.

The damp outfield and the soggy pitch, after rains in the last couple of days, restricted the batsmen from either side to go in for the big hits.

On winning the toss, OSCAR opted to bat first and took guard at the crease.

Taking advantage of a slow outfield, thanks to its dampness as well as a pitch which is yet to dry completely, the main strikers of THAU were at it, sending back the batsmen of OSCAR at regular intervals.

With the ball keeping low and refusing to come to the bat, the THAU bowlers maximised on the situation to take the match away from OSCAR and script a four wicket win.

Led by Preetam with three wickets, the main bowlers of THAU wreaked havoc with the batsmen of OSCAR, with only Rohit of OSCAR coming up with a commendable score of 22 runs off 39 balls.

Preetam was ably assisted by Chittaranjan and Sanjit who chipped in two wickets each to bowl out OSCAR for a paltry 54 in the allotted 30 overs.

Set a paltry target of 55 runs, the THAU batsmen took to the crease in a positive frame of mind, but the pitch played in favour of the bowlers and the frontline batsmen of THAU had to play a patient knock.

Amarjit led the way with a patient 20 off 46 balls not out to take his team to the target.

The other notable contributors were Gelson with a quick fire 15 off only 16 balls and Millan with a well made 10 off 24 balls who carried his bat through the match.

Reading the condition of the pitch and the slow outfield well, the batsmen of THAU did not go for the big shots and instead relied on the ones and twos with some quick runn ing between the wickets.

This paid off in the end as they managed to notch up a total score of 56 runs in 17.4 overs for six wickets.

The frontline bowlers of OSCAR played their hearts out but the steady approach by the batsmen of THAU did them in as they managed to steal quick singles and twos, leaving the bowlers of OSCAR a frustrated lot.

For OSCAR, Semson did well in scalping 3 wickets followed by Bobby with 2 wickets.

For his haul of three wickets, Preetam of THAU walked away with the man of the match award.

The umpires of today's match were Bhagirot and Jayenta.

Today's win has put THAU in a comfortable position as they won the last match they played some days back.

This was the 21st match of the ongoing tournament and tomorrow ESU (Wangkhei) will take on WCA (Tera Yengkhom Leirak) .

The tournament is being organised by the Manipur Cricket Association.

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