Uttar Pradesh piled up a massive 188 runs target for Nagaland in the stipulated 20 overs with Rinku Singh scoring a brilliant 58 runs knock in 34 balls studded with four 4’s and three huge 6’s. Abhishek Goswami (36 runs), Nitish Rana (32 runs), Sameer Rizvi (26 runs) and Shiva Singh (18 runs) were the other notable run scorers for the UP team.
A press release by the Nagaland Cricket Association stated that the for Nagaland bowling unit, Karan Tewatiya looked good and managed to scalp 2 wickets early on. Rinku Singh however took him for an agonising 27 runs in his last over.
Khrievitso Kense (4 overs-2 wickets, 18 runs and 9 dots) was the star performer for Nagaland as he picked up the dangerous duo of Nitish Rana and Abishek Goswami and effected the crucial runout of Sameer Rizvi who looked in sublime form. In the run chase, it was a disappointment for Nagaland as they could manage to put up only 100 runs on the board. The two openers Joshua Ben Ozukum (15 runs) and Sedezhalie Rupreo (18 runs) looked good in the beginning and were able to hit couple of boundaries against the in the form Bhuvneshwar Kumar
However, it was Prashant Veer, the impact player for Uttar Pradesh who had a memorable outing picking up 3 wickets in 3 overs, and conceded only 7 runs and delivered 14 dot balls with an economy rate of 2.33.
Jonathan Rongsen (15 runs) wicket was crucial as he was dismissed for LBW for what could have been a very close call. Later, Jaganath Sinivas fought a losing battle scoring 31 runs off 17 balls but it was all too little too late. Nagaland will next play Karnataka on October 23 at Maharana Pratap College Ground, Dehradun at 11:00 AM IST.