NURUDDIN TROPHY
Jan. 19: Assam Ranji Trophy discards Parag Das and Zaved Zaman helped favourites NF Railway crush underdogs Lakhipur with a mammoth 575-run hammering to ease into the second round of the senior inter-district cricket meet for the Nuruddin Ahmed Trophy.
Tezpur, Kokrajhar and Nazira have also advanced to the next round. Playing at home, Tezpur posted an innings and 254-run victory over Hojai, while Nazira won their away match by virtue of the first innings lead. Kokrajhar beat Nalbari at home to set up a clash with the winner of the Bongaigaon-Barperta match.
Opener Parag Das, out of form in the Ranji matches, hit the comeback road slamming a belligerent 146 in NF Railway’s first innings total of 249 for three. It included 19 fours and seven sixes. Skipper Zaman complemented Das’ efforts claiming six wickets for 42 with seven of the Lakhipur batsmen returning to the pavilion without scoring.
In the second innings, NF Railway made 444 with Tilak Das and Dipen Mahanta contributing 128 and 83 runs respectively. They packed out the hapless Lakhipur team for 76. Both Das and Zaman have been dropped from the state Ranji fixture against Tamil Nadu.
NF Railway meet Silchar in their second-round encounter from January 24. They will be without the services of wicketkeeper Zakaria Zuffri, all-rounder Mrigen Talukdar and off-spinner Arlen Konwar, who are in the state Ranji team for the match against Tamil Nadu.
BRIEF SCORES:
Tezpur-Hojai in Tezpur: Hojai 57 and 125 and Tezpur 436 (Tapan Seal 139, Ramit Pal 76; Sidharth Nath 6/31). Tezpur won by an innings and 254 runs.
Kokrajhar-Nalbari in Kokrajhar: Kokrajhar 275/9 (Sujit Sen 59, Subrata Devnath 22) and Nalbari 136 (M. Kalita 24, P. Paswan 20). Kokrajhar won by first innings lead.
Bokakhat-Nazira in Bokakhat: Bokakhat 89 (Rubul Ali 5/22, Samir Rahman 5/15) and Nazira 201 (Biju Deu 57 and Rubul Ali 38). Nazira won by first innings lead.
