L Kishan stars as CYCLONE storm into 8th MNCA Elite Tournament final

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Apr 24 : CYCLONE, Thangmeiband overwhelmed CHAMP CC, Khagempalli by 82 runs in the first playoff tie (qualfier) to cruise into the final of the 8th MNCA W Prahlada and W Ramananda Elite tournament.
CHAMP CC now have to wait for the winners of the eliminator to be played between PTRC and THAU tomorrow for the second qualifier scheduled on April 28.
CHAMP CC elected to field first and saw CYCLONE gather 190 runs for 9 wickets in the allotted 40 overs. Despite restricting their rivals to a modest total, CHAMP CC squandered the opportunity to seal first final slot as their batting department produced a dismal performance and and slumped to 108 all out in 34.5 overs.
CYCLONE who were put in to bat first had a stuttering start to their innings and lost both the openers cheaply to M Thomas and K Ravishankar before losing the third wicket in the form of M Rohit to Md Sultan Karim at 37 after 10.2 overs .
 Kishan Laishram who came in at 3 gave some respite by  partnering well with Md Al Bashid but he was removed for the fourth wicket at 74 by Md Ahsanul Kabir and the responsibilty fell on Al Bashid who forged the innings best batting partnership with Bikash Singh by adding 69 runs for the fifth wicket before Thingbaijam Nicholson removed Bikash on 39.
Nitesh Sedai further inflicted damage on CYCLONE by getting rid of Nongthombam Denin and M Raju cheaply before Md Sultan bowled out Md Al Bashid on 75 for the 8th wicket and Nicholson undone K Homendro on 4 for the 9th wicket.
Abdul Kasim and Nongmaithem Suraj were unbeaten on 3 and 4 runs respectively as the innings came to an end.
In reply, the opening partnership between Narsingh Yadav and Leikhram Johny racked up 48 runs before Kishan Laishram trapped Johny (9) lbw in the fifth delivery of the 11th over.
It was the turning point for the innings as CHAMP CC lost Narsingh on 33 to Loktongbam Santosh for the second wicket in the next over (11.3) before adding any run and incoming Samir departed on 2-ball duck to Kishan Laishram in the 13th over.
The slump continued with Abdul Kasim snaring three wickets in quick succession to reduce CHAMP CC to 82/6 in 20.5 overs.
Nongmaithem Suraj undone Thingbaijam Nicholson for 10 runs in the 26th over before Kisham Laishram completed his haul of three wickets (3/10 in 5 overs) by removing N Gulson for 7 runs.
Suraj then caught and bowled Md Sultan Karim for 13 runs in the 32nd over to return with the bowling figures of 2/7 in 7 overs before Loktongbam Santosh too had his second wicket in the form of Md Ahsanul Kabir 3 in the 35th over and ended the innings.
Kishan Laishram who produced an allround performance was adjudged man of the match.