The State U-23 cricket team has yet again suffered a humiliating defeat in the CK Naidu Trophy at the Narsingarh Police Academy ground against Tamil Nadu
The four-day match concluded in just two and a half days. Tripura suffered a hat-trick of defeats, solely due to the failure of their batsmen. Tripura’s defeat was sealed on the second day itself. The only question remaining was how much they could fight back in the second innings. However, Tripura’s U-23 batters failed to deliver.
Tripura was defeated by Tamil Nadu by an innings and 35 runs. In response to Tamil Nadu’s formidable score of 265 runs, Tripura could only manage 106 runs in their first innings, falling 159 runs short. Forced to follow-on, Tripura’s second innings continued to be dismal, with a total of just 124 runs. Tamil Nadu sealed the match in their favour within two-and-half days.
Questions have been raised about the qualification of the state team’s cricketers. Former players believe that most of the current players should be dropped and replaced with fresh talent before the next match. Tripura’s team management is also disappointed with performance of the batters. In the second innings, only Ananda Bhowmik showed any determination to stay at the crease. Doubts have arisen about whether these cricketers even possess the ability to play a four-day match.
In their second innings, Tripura was bowled out for 124 runs in just 46.1 overs. Ananda Bhowmik was the lone warrior, scoring 51 runs off 85 balls, including four boundaries and an overboundary. No other batsmen could score 20 or more runs. Opener Rituraj Ghosh Ray scored 16, Sahil Sultan 13, Tanmoy Das 11, and captain Sentu Sarkar scored 10 runs only. For Tamil Nadu, Sachin Rathi took four wickets for 23 runs, and VP Din took two wickets for 22 runs.
Having lost all three matches of the season, Tripura is currently at the bottom of their group. Their next match is against Chandigarh on November 8-11. Cricket fans believe that the state cricket association should make significant changes to the Tripura team before the fourth match.
(Tripura, Northeast)
