SHILLONG, Feb 7: The Shillong Cricket League got underway at the North East Police Academy (NEPA) Grounds today. The chief guest for the inaugural ceremony was Deepal Kumar, IPS, Director NEPA. He met the players during the ceremony and assured of all the support to make the league a success. Kumar then declared the league open.
In the first match, between SalesXl and Golflinks Xl Stars, Sales XI won the toss and decided to bat first. They scored 129/10 in 19.3overs. Rohit Barua (36runs of 39balls, including 5 boundaries) was the top scorer for Sales XI. Pinku Deb (35runs of 30 balls including 5 boundaries) also made some handy contributions.
For Golflinks XI, Prem Mahato and Azhar Sheikh took 4wickets each while giving away 17 and 18 runs respectively.
In reply, Golflinks scored the required 130 runs for the loss of 5 wickets with 2.4 overs remaining. Ankit Singh Rathor smashed 66runs of 46 balls (including 6 sixes and 7 boundaries), while Pritam Singh’s cameo of 24 not out of 13balls (1 six and 3 boundaries) closed out the game for Golflinks.
Ayan Deb (2/17) and Swaroop Dey (2/27) were the pick of the bowlers for the Sales team.
Golflinks won the match by 5 wickets. Ankit was awarded the Man of the Match award for his wonderful innings.
In the second game of the day, Metallica Cricket Club took on Cluster CC. Metallica won the toss and decided to bat first. Uday Sherpa (62 runs of 34 balls), Adish Shah (42 runs of 26 balls) and Rajiv Thakuri (40 runs of 16 balls) propelled the Metallica innings to 221/8 in their allotted 20 overs.
Mohammad Sameer (2/27) and Bikash Lama (1/32), were the best bowlers for Cluster.
In reply, Cluster CC could only score 116/9 in their allotted 14 overs (match reduced due to rain). Sameer (29 runs of 21balls), Reyaz Siddique (19 runs of 21 balls), Rahul Barua (2/25) and Ashish Gurung (1/23) were the top performers. Metallica won the match by 40 runs by D/L method. Uday was given the Man of the Match for his blitzkrieg.
