10th MNCA Elite Trophy Holders PTRC beat RCA by 15 runs to finish league toppers; TRAU, CYCLONE share points to make 2-3 finish

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Mar 24 : Defending champions PTRC, Patsoi Part IV defeated RCA, Lilong by 15 runs for the 10th win and to end the league campaign of the 10th MNCA W Prahlada and W Ramananda Elite Trophy as table toppers.
RCA, who had a fair chance of making it to the 4-team playoff, won the toss today at Model Higher Secondary and Oriental College ground and elected to bat first. They restricted PTRC to 183/9 in 33 overs but slumped to 168 all out in 32.2 overs and ended up securing fifth place in the league table on 12 points narrowly missing the top-four finish.
In the first innings, PTRC did not have the best of the start and slipped to 63/5 within 14 overs with Naesh Hussain leading the attack but Pheiroijam Jotin took on the RCA bowlers and revived the innings by adding 98 runs off 89 balls for the 6th wicket with Ngariyanbam Johnson until his departure on 61 off 51 balls to Makakmayum Aziz in the 29th over.
Aziz then completed his treble of wickets by trapping RK Rex lbw on 7 for the 7th wicket in the 31st over and returned with the best bowling figures of 3/38.
After Johnson’s departure on 43 off 72 balls for the 8th wicket, Bishworjit Konthoujam 7 off 8 balls and Khundrakpam Punshiba 0 off 2 balls were unbeaten as PTRC closed out the innings truncated to 33 overs at 183/9.
 RCA’s Zuned (2/34), Naesh (2/29), Md Danish (1/42) and Iliyas (1/2) were also among the wickets for the team.
In reply, RCA struggled early on and slumped to 43/4 as Md Safwan departed on a golden duck off the bowling of RK Rex before Bishworjit swept the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th wickets.
Md Alfash 32 and Md Anush 28 tried to calm things down midway by adding 52 off 52 balls for the fifth wicket but Khangembam Santosh came into action and broke their partnership by removing Anush in the 22nd over.
RCA further dipped to 107/8 in 24.3 overs with Santosh and Rex inflicting the damage before Md Danish 21 and Makakmayum Aziz Mirza 34 fought late to add another 56 runs for the 9th wicket until Jotin dismissed dangerous looking Zuned in the 32nd over.
Khangembam Santosh then took the honour to remove Aziz Mirza in the second delivery of the final over (33) to put RCA to sword at 168.
Bishworjit returned with the best figures of 3/32 in his spell of 7 overs while Santosh followed suit with 3/18 in 4.2 overs. Rex meanwhile finished with 2/25 as Jotin posted 1/21.
The crucial clash between CYCLONE, Thangmeiband and TRAU, Kwakeithel at Lairenjam Public Ground was however abandoned due to unplayable ground conditions.
 With the result, CYCLONE finished second despite remaining level on 17 points with TRAU as they enjoyed better Net Run Rate and eventually set up the first qualifier date with PTRC.
TRAU who are third in the table are now set to face fourth placed REYS, Nagamapal in the eliminator match that will decide who will advance to the second qualifier.
Notably, the winners of the first qualifier will advance to the final while the losers have to play the winners of the eliminator between TRAU and REYS in the second qualifier, for the remaining final berth.