Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Langlonyamba's unbeaten fifty goes in vain as Nagaland thrash Manipur by 8 wickets

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jan 19 : Nagaland rode on Stuart Binny and Chetan Bist to thrash Manipur by 8 wickets in this season's fifth and final plate group clash of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at TI Cycles Ground, Murugappa, Chennai today.
Manipur elected to bat first after winning the toss and posted a total of 129/8 thanks to Langlonyamba and Nitesh Sedai's heroics. The total however proved too small Chetan Bist's blistering knock of 60 runs set the stage for a big win.
Langlonyamba Meitankei-shangbam topscored with a unbeaten 50 off 48 balls, first by a Manipuri player this season, after Stuart Binny successfully removed the openers Narsingh Yadav (4) and Gemson Singh (2) leaving Manipur on 7 for 2 within 3 overs.
Nitesh Sedai who was with Langlonyamba for the third wicket stand added 37 runs before he too fell prey to Binny's prolific bowling soon after Manipur crossed the 50 run mark. Nitesh Sedai's knock included 5 fours and 1 six. Langlonyamba anchored well and hit 3 fours en route to his unbeaten 50 run feat as his partners on the other end  failed to stand firm and depart on cheap scores.
After Binny's early breakthrough, Nagaho Chishi, Hokaito Zhimomi and Hem Chetri picked up a wicket apiece to restrict Manipur to 129/8.
Though Ajay Lamabam managed to dismiss Nagaland skipper Rongsen Jonathan on 14, the chase remained smooth as Chetan Bist proved his mettle with a quickfire knock of 60 off 43 balls (7 fours and 2 sixes) to send Nagaland to sniffing distance of a big win. Shrikant Mundhe (36 not out) and Stuart Binny (15 not out) then took the honour to finish the innings on 131/2 with 17 balls left to play and gave Nagaland 4th win in 5 matches.
Nongthombam Denin who debuted his senior domestic T20 championship career by claiming a wicket against Bihar in the previous match was able to dismiss Chetan Bist (lbw) today.