Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Inglorious exit for Nagaland

DIMAPUR — The Nagaland senior men’s cricket team ended their campaign at the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023 after another 73 runs defeat to Tamil Nadu, falling at Abhimanyu Cricket Academy, Dehradun, on Friday.

Nagaland faced defeat in five Group E matches, leaving them at the bottom of the group standings with just two points, which was also a result of shared points as Nagaland’s first match against Madhya Pradesh was affected by rain.

Tamil Nadu team won the toss and elected to bat first, setting a target of 197 runs with a loss of eight wickets in 20 overs.

While the Nagaland bowlers, in the first few overs, presented a problem to the opening batsmen of Tamil Nadu as RS Jaganath Sinivas rattled Sai Sudharsan’s stumps in his fourth ball of second overs, leaving Tamil Nadu at 13/1.

Sinivas struck again in his second spell, taking a wicket with the fifth ball, leaving Tamil Nadu score card 36/2 after just 3.5 overs.

However, Tamil Nadu managed to pull things back with a composed captain Washington Sundar along with Vijay Shankar, and the duo scored a crucial 48-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

Shahrukh Khan contributed 23 runs from 16 deliveries, while Ajitesh Guruswamy added 25 runs off 13 balls, and N Jagadeesan amassed 27 runs from 15 balls. Sanjay Yadav and Sai Kishore remained unbeaten, chipping in with 13 and 9 runs, respectively.

Nagaland bowlers Chopise Hopongkyu, Nagaho Chishi and RS Jaganath Sinivas took two wickets each and Khrievitso Kense took one wicket.

In their pursuit of the formidable target, Nagaland’s opening batsmen got off to a promising start, accumulating 21 runs in just 11 balls.

However, in the very next delivery, Oren Ngullie fell victim to an LBW dismissal by Kuldeep Sen, departing after contributing 10 runs before heading back to the pavilion.

Sedezhalie Rupero and Jaganath Sinivas managed to stay not out, accumulating 42 and 22 runs, respectively. But despite their efforts, Nagaland ended their innings with a score of 123-3 after 20 overs, falling short by 73 runs.

The Nagaland team was led by Jonathan Rongsen as captain, Hokaito Zhimomi as vice captain and the members included Nagaho Chishi, Sedezhalie Rupreo, Tahmeed Rahman, Moakumzuk Tzudir, Khrievitso Kense, Hopongkyu Sangtam, Joshua Ben Ozukum, Sepichem Jingru and Oren Ngullie with guest payers- Sumit Kumar, R S Jaganath Sinivas and Karan Tewatiya.

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