Cooch Behar Trophy Manipur complete league stage sweep with 6-wicket thrashing of Nagaland, earn a shot at Elite promotion

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Dec 19 : Manipur completed league stage sweep in the Cooch Behar Trophy Plate Group competition 2025-26 to earn a shot at the Elite promotion next season as they thrashed Nagaland by 6 wickets today at Gokulbhai Somabhai Patel Stadium in Nadiad.
League leaders Manipur will play runners up Nagaland in the final beginning on December 24 for a place in the Elite Group next season.
Resuming their second innings at 216/7, Nagaland were dismissed for 239 runs in 108.3 overs in the first session as  Chingkheinganba claimed two more wickets to finish with a fifer (5/47 in 28 overs) and Naesh grabbed one (1/20 in 10.1 overs).
Manipur then chased down the target of 216 runs as skipper W Max unchored with an unbeaten 60 off 74 balls studded with 8 fours after Danish blazed a 76-ball 53 (7 fours) and provided a steady start to the innings.
Danish and Lucky 16 off 20 gathered 52 runs together for the first innings in 10.1 overs before Lucky fell to Aloto Sumi and Danish completed his half century with Sougaijam Rain 31 as the duo forged 28 runs off 54 balls before he holed out to Shyerinlo Thong off the bowling of Samir Ali for the second wicket.
Two down batter Max then forged another remarkable partnership of 56 runs for the third wicket before he stitched 36 runs with Ali Karim 25 off 23 for the fourth wicket and shared an unbeaten 44-run stand with Naesh 23 off 22 to finish off the chase.
 Nagaland had earlier posted 273 runs in the first innings after electing to bat first courtesy of Aloto Sumi’s 55 off 169, Vizoletuo Zhale’s 44 off 98, Samir Ali’s 39 off 64, and Darsh Choudhary’ 29 not out off 69 before Manipur took a 24-run first innings lead riding on half century knocks from Ali Karim 68 off 118 (8 fours and 1 sixes) and Naesh 51 off 58 (2 fours and 1 six) and notable contributions from Thokchom Lucky 45 off 59 (7 fours), and Lanchenba 42 off 104 (5 fours).
Md Danish (4/84 in 24 overs), Yumnam Chingkheinganba (2/48), Naesh (1/29), Kaiku (1/16), and Sougaijam Robinson (1/ 2) were among the wickets for Manipur in Nagaland’s first innings before Yumnam Chingkhei Nganba (5/47 in 28 overs) and Lanchenba (3/49 in 17 overs) shared a bulk of 8 wickets in the second innings.
For Nagaland, Aloto Sumi  (6/86 in 27 overs) and Samir Ali (2/25 in 8.1 overs) led the bowling attack in the first innings for Manipur while Medempok Pongen (2/40), Aloto Sumi (1/91), and Samir Ali (1/34) shared four wickets in the second innings.
With the match haul of 7 wickets, Yumnam Chingkheinganba topped the chart for most wickets in the U-19 Men’s First Class Tournament (Plate Group) with 38 wickets in 5 matches while Ali Karim finished atop the chart for most runs with 535 runs in 5 matches studded with two centuries and two half centuries.