A moment from the match between New Star Club and Manipur Police Sports Club at the Nehru Stadium on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Twenty20 cricket

Guwahati, Dec. 19: Manipur Police Sports Club today made a strong opening statement by posting a convincing five-wicket win against local outfit New Star Club in their first match of the 1st Bud Challenge Twenty20 cricket meet, at the Nehru Stadium.

The atmosphere on the ground was festive with the organisers, Bud Cricket Club, trying to recreate the frills associated with the new version of the game by playing foot-tapping music during the breaks.

After restricting New Star to 110 in 19.3 overs with some splendid fielding and bowling, the Manipur cops, helped by Man of the Match Kipjen L. (28 off 24 balls) and Y. Siman (24 off 43 balls), overtook the total with 3.1 overs remaining, despite suffering some early setbacks.

Earlier, Kipjen, a spinner, took two wickets for 20 runs.

“It was a good match. Despite losing early wickets we played well. The middle order too came good,” said the captain of the winning team, Viking Salam. Salam himself remained not out on eight.

Nikhil Mittal and Kishore Deka of New Star scored 27 and 21 respectively. Mittal took two wickets for 18.

Assam Ranji coach Sanath Kumar gave away the Man of the Match award to Kipjen.

Earlier, the tournament got off to a flying start with a cracker of a match between Guwahati Cricket Coaching Centre (B) and Titan Club.

Batting first, Titan Club scored 174 for six in and then restricted their rivals to 153 in 19 overs for a 21-run win.

Man of the Match Biswajit Medhi of Titan took four wickets for 15 while Niormal Nath and Bhaskar Kalita took two wickets each.

For the winners, Trithankar Das made 52, Bhaskar Kalita 29 and Moon Kumar 24.

For Guwahati Centre, the main scorers were Pankaj Kalita (37), Ambar Bhattacharjee (29) and Mintu Chakraborthy (24).

Tomorrow, Ankurjyoti Club will take on the Guwahati centre, while hosts Bud Cricket Club will meet River Rine Club.