Chennai: The final scorecard does not fully reflect the monumental fight that the newly-promoted Nagaland produced against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A clash, which concluded on Tuesday in Bengaluru.
Tamil Nadu did secure a first-innings lead of 66 on Day 4 defending a mammoth 512 at the BCCI CoE ground, but it was all about the grit and determination of the Nagaland players who showed that they are slowly finding their feet among the elites.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Given that Nagaland are ‘newbies’ at the Ranji level – they made their debut only in the 2018-19 season – and they had just climbed the elite class, few expected them to pose a real threat to a domestic powerhouse unit like TN. The fact that they were thumped by Vidarbha in their previous game made one believe that it will be a quick full-pointer for Tamil Nadu.
However, Nagaland well and truly punched above their weight, albeit falling short of the fairytale. Imliwati Lemtur, a school teacher-turned-cricketer who took the fight to the visitors with a valiant 146 (287 balls; 20x4, 3x6), spoke to TOI about how the gigantic effort could influence the foreseeable future of Nagaland cricket.
“On a personal note, I am just feeling great. This is one of the best comebacks we have made against an elite team (they were 31-4 at one stage). It will give the team extra motivation to do even better for the rest of the season. It will give us the belief that we can fight well against elite teams,” said Imliwati, a 33-year-old allrounder. “After the match against TN, we are now looking forward to the upcoming games,” added Imliwati, who stitched a 225-run stand with opener D Nischal (175 off 376 balls; 25x4) for the sixth wicket.
While cricket’s popularity is growing in the North Eastern state, according to Imliwati, persistent rain is proving to be a major deterrent. It has been learnt that over 100 players took part in the Ranji trials ahead of the season.
“People are showing interest in taking up cricket. Unlike in the past, we have cricket tournaments happening around the year. But rain is the main problem. There is a lot of rain in hilly areas and Dimapur is the only city where we have a proper ground. For our main inter-district tournament, all the teams assemble there to compete,” said Imliwati, adding: “It will be beneficial if we have an indoor facility in every district. We miss out on a lot of game time because of rain.”
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 512-3 decl. Nagaland 446 in 157.4 overs (D Nischal 175, Imliwati Lemtur 146, Yugandhar Singh 67; Gurjapneet Singh 4-75, DT Chandrasekar 3-69). Match drawn (TN took first-innings lead).
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