Madhya Pradesh cruises into the final

Madhya Pradesh denied Tripura a place in the Cooch Behar Trophy final, batting through the whole of the last day in their semi final match at Deccan Gymkhana, Pune. MP sealed their place in the final by the virtue of the 16 runs first innings lead over Tripura. MP deciding to go for batting practice were 391/5 at the end of the last day's play on Monday.

Maninder Singh scored an unbeaten 103 on a day when MP was keen on batting through. Earlier in the day Mohnish Mishra was dismissed for 35 in the 29th over by T Shah. Mishra hammered two sixes and two fours in his stay at the crease for 55 balls. That followed a 82 runs partnership between captain Sachin Dholepure and Nitin Menon. J Debnath had Menon LBW for 40 (3 fours) reducing MP to 167/3. At 187 Dholepure was caught behind off the bowling of T Shah for a well made 81. Dholepure hit 6 fours in 203 balls he faced in 224 minutes. Maninder Singh and Jatin Saxena smashed the Tripura bowling to score 193 runs in 35.2 overs. Maninder went on to score his hundred (103 not out) including 13 strokes to the ropes. Saxena was unlucky to miss out on his hundred to be dimissed at 92. Saxena's free scoring innings lasted 102 balls as he belted a dozen balls past the boundary. Sami A Khan came out to bat at the fall of Saxena and blasted a six in the two balls he faced. For Tripura T Shah had a long bowl to finish with 40-5-133-3. It augurs well for MP as their batting came good in the second innings for they would be meeting an upbeat Haryana in the final. Tripura's campaign has been a successful one too. It is remarkable that they went all the way to the semi finals and shows how well junior cricket has picked up in that part of the country