Vijay Hazare Trophy Plate Group Kishan Singha picks five as Manipur thump Meghalaya by 3 wickets to enter final

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jan 3 :  Another final of the season for senior men’s cricket!
In another major breakthrough, Manipur senior men’s cricket team have reached the Vijay Hazare Trophy final as the Plate Group runners up after they beat Meghalaya by 3 wickets in the ultimate Plate Group league for the fourth win today at JSCA Oval Ground, Ranchi.
They will play league leaders Bihar, who beat Mizoram by 5 wickets in another match to complete their league stage sweep, in the final match on January 6.
Notably, Manipur have already set up the final date with Bihar for the Ranji Trophy Plate Group title. The winners in both the finals will earn promotion to Elite Group next season in the List A and the First Class tournaments.
Electing to field first after winning the toss, Manipur succeeded in dismantling Meghalaya for 238 runs in 45 overs riding on an exemplary bowling performance from slow left arm orthodox bowler L Kishan Singha who collected five crucial scalps after pacers inflicted early damage.
Langlonyamba and Johnson then laid the foundation of a successful chase that culminated at 241/7 in 43.3 overs with Jotin Pheiroijam hitting Swarajeet Das for a four to remain unbeaten on 36 off 31 balls. Pheiroijam Jotin impressed with his medium pace bowling as he undone Meghalaya opener Swarajeet Das on 12 in the second over before the Manipur skipper Bishworjit got the rid of number 2 batter Arpit Das on 6 in the fifth over.
One down batter Kush Agarwal and Kishan Lyndoh then took matters in their hands and forged 54 runs off 67 balls for the third wicket but K Priyojit broke the partnership to reduce Meghalaya to 73/3 in the first delivery of the 17th over.
Kush Agarwal held his nerve to gather another 58-run partnership with Jaskirat to take Meghalaya past the 100-run mark but Priyojit bowled him out on 47 (off 65 balls) for the second wicket and left Meghalaya struggling at 131/4.
Jaskirat who came in at number 5 then did his best to stabilise the innings by scoring a century with the assistance of Lerry but Kishan Singha bowled out Lerry on 21 to break their 44-run partnership in the second delivery of the 35th over before he caught and bowled Akash Kumar on a 1 four balls later to complete his double and leave Meghalaya at 177/6.
Jaskirat also saw his partner and Meghalaya skipper Ram hole out to Bishworjit as Pheiroijam Jotin returned to action  to complete his double in the 38th over before Kishan Singha bowled out Jaskirat on a 78-ball 74 (6 fours and 1 six) and the incoming Ribok D on a duck in the first and second deliveries of the 43rd over to complete his four wicket haul and reduce Meghalaya to 216/9.
Kishan Singha went on to undone Abhishek on 5-ball 2 and put a cap on the Meghalaya innings at 238 despite Anish Charak’s 28 not out off 26 balls.
It was Kishan Singha’s maiden fifer (5/68 in 10 overs) in the List A tournament after having amassed 22 wickets to his name in as many as 33 innings. Jotin meanwhile returned with 2/27 in 8 overs as K Priyojit finished with 2/36 in 10 overs and Bishworjit finished with 1/30 in 8 overs.
In reply, Manipur had a slow start and slumped to 41/2 in 7.2 overs losing opener Y Karnajit on 5 to Akash Kumar and Kh Ulenyai on 29 to Swarajeet Das.
M Langlonyamba and Ng Johnson then took Manipur out of the precarious situation by forging 116 runs off 122 balls until Ribok D caught and bowled Langlonyamba on an 83-ball 77. Langlonyamba hit the fence 11 times (9 fours and 2 sixes) on the way to his 8th half century in the List A tournament.
Johnson and Priyojit then shouldered the responsibility of the chase and as the duo added 32 runs off 36 balls for the fourth wicket, Ribok D bowled out Priyojit on 19 as the scoreboard read 189.
Manipur further slumped to 193/6 as Ng Johnson was dismissed by Ram when he was 2 runs away from completing his half century for the fifth wicket and incoming Ng Jameson got run out on a 3-ball 2.
Jotin who came in at number 8, however activated his allrounder mode to forge 40 runs off 45 balls with Kh Santosh to take Manipur past 230-run mark until D Ribok bowled out Santosh on 14 for the 7th wicket in the final delivery of the 43rd over.
Jotin then smashed 2 fours off Swarajeet Das in the following three deliveries to finish off the chase with incoming Kishan Singha.
Ribok D returned with the best figures of 3/25 as Akash Kumar, Swarajeet, and Ram shared three wickets.
Kishan Singha who enjoyed a match defining fifer was adjudged player of the match.
Brief Scores
Meghalaya 238 in 45 overs (Jaskirat 74, Kush Agarwal 47, Kishan Lyndoh 30; Kishan Singha 5/68, Jotin 2/27, K Priyojit 2/36, Bishworjit 1/30)
Manipur 241/7 in 43.3 overs (Langlonyamba 77, Johnson 48, Jotin 36 not out, Ulenyai 29; Ribok D 3/25)