Sadek Choudhury stars in Assam's victory over Tripura

Sadek Imran Choudhury (6/28) bowled Assam to a thrilling 41-run victory over Tripura at Norul Amin Stadium, Nagaon, Guwahati, in the Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy East Zone league on Sunday. Choudhury, with bat and ball, made the defining contribution in a low scoring match.

Tripura won the toss on Friday and asked Assam to bat first. Assam got off to a bad start losing four wickets with just 21 on the board. UA Medhi (60) and MP Aziz (48) added 90 valuable runs for the fifth wicket. SK Barman (30) tried to hold the innings together but Assam found themselves bowled out for 189 in 84.5 overs. Monogatta Debbarma (3/17) and S Chakraborty (4/62) did the bulk of the damage. The Tripura innings was well guided by a century (104 runs) partnership between Bappa Das (72) and J Choudhury (46) for the third wicket. M Basfore made 18 but no other batsman could get to the double figures. P Bhagat (4/29) and Sadek Imran Choudhury (3/25) helped Assam bowl out Tripura for 171 in 66 overs.

Assam started their second innings with a lead of 18 runs. The script seemed to have a certainty as Assam lost their first four wickets with just 24 on the board as it happened in the first innings. Sadek Choudhury (30) and captain D Mahanta (38) helped Assam out of the abyss. Monogatta Debbarma was unplayable as he ripped through the heart of the batting to terminate the Assam innings at 121 in the 50th over. Debbarma finished with the remarkable figures of 21.3-9-29-6 leaving Tripura with some hope of chasing the target of 140 for a victory. Tripura's hopes were dashed by Sadek Choudhury who ran through the innings with ease. His efforts were well rewarded as he finished with the bowling analysis of 16-7-28-6. The only players to get to the double figures were B Bhowmick (19) and J Choudhury (27). Extras read 22 in the Tripura second innings total of 98. Tripura had to go home with no points as hosts Assam took all eight points.