Nagaland beat Meghalaya to win Col. C.K Nayudu Trophy

DIMAPUR — Nagaland ended its domestic season in cricket on a high note by lifting the Col. C.K Nayudu Trophy for the Plate Group after defeating Meghalaya in the final played at Nagaland Cricket Stadium in Sovima, on Monday.

After bowling out Meghalaya for just 108 runs on the first day of the four-day Test match (from Feb. 18 to the 21st), Nagaland, who were trailing by 58 runs, resumed batting on day-2 with nine wickets in hand but failed to take advantage of the situation as their wickets fell like ninepins, managing to score only 59 runs to their overnight score and taking the first innings lead by just one run.

Mughavi’s unbeaten knock of 62 runs was the only notable contribution with the bat for Nagaland, as silly run outs of key players, including the skipper affected the momentum of the team, said an update from Nagaland Cricket Association (NCA).

Trailing by just one run, Meghalaya began its second innings on day-2, but once again failed to perform with their bats, as they were bowled out for a mere 54 runs. Bipin, who scored 11 runs, was the only batsman to score a double digit for the team.

Nagaland’s bowling attack was led by Neizekho, who took 6 wickets in the second innings after claiming three wickets in the first, taking the total wickets in the match to 9. Hem Bahadur took the remaining wickets to finish with a figure of 4/24 in 8 overs, said the update.

Chasing a target of 53 runs, Nagaland achieved the target for loss of 3 wickets, thus won the match by 7 wickets to lift the Col. CK Nayudu Trophy (2023-24) for the Plate Group.

As per the update, Nagaland cricket (men’s category) has had a good putting this season, making it to four semis and going on to win two — Cooch Behar (U-19) and Col. CK Nayudu (U-23) beating Meghalaya in both the matches. However, the state’s Under 16 team lost to Meghalaya in the Vijay Merchant Trophy and to Hyderabad in Senior Men’s Ranji Trophy, both in the semi-finals.