Alpine Sporting Club 200/5 in 30 overs (Nilesh Limishaney 56, Adiv Tamang 34, Sonam Bhutia 2/28) beat Black Eagle Sikkim Armed Police 75 in 23 overs (Sonam Bhutia 12, Anurodhan Pradhan 4/7, Md Ronak 3/14) by 125 runs.
After Alpine Sporting Club the target of 201 runs in front of Alpine Sporting Club, a solid start was needed from the chasing side in order to lift the trophy. On the contrary, Black Eagle Sikkim's batsmen never looked comfortable, in fact they could just play 23 overs before getting bundled out on a score of 75. Anurodhan Pradhan and Md Ronak showed their skills with the cherry as their aggregate figures read 7/21. Anurodhan Pradhan just gave away 7 runs in his 5-over spell to go with four wickets. Only Sonam Bhutia and Rohit were the two batsmen who reached the double-figure mark. No batsmen could face fiery bowling attack of Ronak, Anurodhan Pradhan, Limboo, Ajay Pradhan and Tarun Sharma, they were just sensational.
It was Alpine Sporting Club who won the toss and elected to bat first. Their openers gave them the perfect start by adding 73 runs for the first wicket. Captain Limishaney's majestic innings of 56 runs had set the platform for later batsmen. Though, Alpine Sporting Club lost their way in the middle overs but Adiv Tamang and Afzar Hussain reconstructed the innings by having a partnership of 57 runs for the fourth wicket. Apart from Palzor Tamang and Sonam Bhutia, no other bowler was able to make an impact on the batting side. Towards the end of innings, Afzar Hussain's 22-ball 34 runs helped Alpine Sporting Club to reach the 200 mark and gain psychological advantage.
Nilesh Limishaney remains the leading run-getter with 182 runs in four innings while Palzor Tamang is the highest wicket taker of the tournament with 11 wickets to his name.
With this match, the Sica First Two-Tier Club Tournament has been concluded and Alpine Sporting Club will be very satisfied with their performance. The dominance they displayed in the finals was just outstanding. The tournaments like these are helping the sport to evolve in the north-east region, cricket has started to become more prominent here. And with it, I hope there is more exciting cricket to feature in the coming future.
