Tripura won a thrilling match by 237 runs against Goa in their opening match of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament at the MBB stadium in Agartala on Monday.
The match was already in Tripura’s grasp by the end of the third day, but the visiting team put up a brave fight on the final day.
Goa’s wicket-keeper batsman Siddharth KV scored a brilliant century, but it was not enough to save the team.
In response to Tripura’s first innings score of 484, Goa could only manage 135 runs in the first innings.
Ahead by 349 runs, Tripura declared their second innings at 151/5.
Goa, chasing a target of 501 runs to win, could only manage 263 runs.
Starting the third day at 48/3, the visiting team came under a barrage of bowling from the Tripura bowlers.
Siddharth, who came in to bat at number three, put up a strong resistance, but even his efforts were not enough to save the team.
Siddharth scored 151 runs off 258 balls, hitting 23 fours.
Lakshya E Garg scored 27 off 70 balls, captain Darshan Misal scored 23 off 82 balls, Deepraj Goenkar scored 15 off 30 balls, and Arjun Tendulkar scored 10 off 35 balls.
Finally, Goa scored 263 runs in 97.2 overs in the second innings.
For Tripura, Rana Dutta took 3 wickets for 45 runs, Manishankar Murasingh took 3 wickets for 64 runs, and Abhijit Sarkar took 2 wickets for 42 runs.
Tripura skipper Wriddhiman Saha used nine bowlers on the day.
Tripura’s Sridam Pal who hit a century in the first innings was adjudged the man of the match.
Tripura won the match and earned six points.
Tripura will play their second match against Tamil Nadu from January 12 to 15 at the MBB stadium in Agartala.