Nagaland, Manipur girls bowl 136 wides in one-day match

THE COMMITTEE OF ADMINISTRATORS (COA) WANTS TO INTEGRATE NORTHEASTERN STATES INTO THE BCCI SETUP

NEW DELHI: An astounding 136 wide balls were bowled during aBC CI U-19 women’s one-day match between Na ga land and Ma nip ur being played at Dhanbad. The match, which is apart of the inaugural NE-Bi ha rU -19 one-day competition being organised by the cricket board, saw Manipur bowling 94 wide balls while Na galand were a shade better with 42.

Na ga land girls won the match by 117 runs to log four points, but it was learnt that girls from both the northeastern states were at times not even able to land the ball on the 22-yard square.

Sample this: Na ga land were all out for 215 in 38 overs and as per the scorecard available on BCCI website, Mushkan (54) and Pori (24) were the only two batswomen, who managed to score in double digits.

But Manipur bowled 94 wide deliveries, which meant nearly 15.4 extra overs. Despite the bowling side’s profligacy, Nagaland women lasted 38 overs, and had a decentscoretolookforwardto.In reply, Ma nip ur were all out for 98 in 27.3 overs with Na ga land bowling seven extra overs (42 wides ). In Manipur innings, there were two players who got into double figures. Set er ni (17) and Ro nib ala Tho kc hom (24) crossed the 10- run mark while Po riofN ag a land got five wickets for 16 runs.

The match was being played at the Nehru Stadium in Jealgora, Dhanbad. The Committee of Administrators (COA) wants to integrate northeastern states into the BCCI set-up but the match was an example that asp iring cricketers from the region need topquality coaching facility from the cricket board.

“There is always a beginning. As the teams from NE states will play more matches, they will certainly get better. With state of the art coaching, one can only get better ,” said Na baBh attach arjee, the Meghalaya CA top boss and the convenor of NE states.