J.K. Barua cricket
Nagaon, Dec. 19: Last year’s semi-finalist NF Railway entered the J.K. Barua memorial inter-district (under-19) cricket championship semi-finals, defeating Sivasagar by 13 runs in a quarter-final encounter here on Thursday. Hosts Nagaon also made it to the last eight, thrashing Margherita by nine wickets in a league match on Thursday.
Batting first at the Polytechnic ground here, NF Railway posted a modest total of 150, losing all their wickets in the stipulated 35 overs. Siva Prakash Barman top-scored with 33 and Kunal Roy contributed 20. Barman’s steady knock comprised six hits to the fence. Besides, the Sivasagar bowlers conceded 20 runs as extras. Rajendra Lal captured four wickets for 13 runs in seven overs and Pintu Roy took two for 24. Later, the Sivasagar batsmen were restricted to 137 for nine in 35 overs. Assam’s Vijay Merchant Trophy discard Arijit Sengupta top-scored with 39. NF Railway’s Gyan Prakash claimed three wickets for 19 runs in his seven overs while Uttam Pal took two for 15.
At the Nurul Amin stadium, Margherita elected to bat first and were restricted to 146 for nine in the stipulated 35 overs. Junty Kakaty top-scored for the side with 34 runs and Pankaj Khanikar remained unbeaten on 28. Shyam Baruah captured three for 28 and skipper Bichitra Baruah claimed two for 18. In reply, unbeaten half-centuries by Abhishek Baruah and Kaushik Paul helped the hosts romp home easily, scoring 149 for one in 28 overs. Margherita all-rounder Junty Kakaty captured the sole wicket of Indrajit Buragohain for 17. NF Railway will now meet the winners of the quarterfinal between Nagaon and Dhubri in the first semi-final on December 25. Tomorrow, Jorhat will take on Bokakhat and North Salmara will face Tinsukia in two second round ties.
U-19 teams named: The 20-member Assam football squad for the national under-19 championship at Agartala from December 22 has been named. The All-Manipur Football Association has also named the state squad
The teams
Assam: Chiranjib Gun (GK), Parikhit Gogoi, P. Saikia. Satnam Patra, Homen Kishan, Wajid Ali, Deveswar Rava, Biplab Sonowal, Kaigumai Kamei, Siddhartha Thapa, Madhu Sudan Hazarika, Nitu Narzari, Rajib Das, Mithu Thangson, Bimal Thapa, Ananta Basumatari, Thomson Lamgthasa, Biju Medhi, Ringson Hmar and Subhash Rai. Coach: Subimal Dhar, manager: Dilip Nandi.
Manipur: Lalit Thapa, S. Narakanta, N. Sanamacha, O. Somorendro, Duidang, I. Shanta, M. Subhash, M. Prameshwor, Zenith Tangkhul, M. Roben, P. Somorendro, H. Narendra, Robindro Singh, O. Pritamkumar, K.R. Mathew, O. Sanatomba, Th. Joychandra and Hemin Gangte.
