A very big win for the sport in Tripura, says Manisankar Murasingh

Reacting to Tripura’s stunning 12-run win over Delhi in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Elite Group-D fourth-round match here on Tuesday, skipper and Player-of-The-Match Manisankar Murasingh said that it’s a big win for Tripura cricket.

“In red-ball cricket (2025-26 Ranji Trophy), we took the first-innings lead against Bengal. That gave us a big momentum. And now in T20 cricket, we’ve won against Delhi, which is a big thing for Tripura cricket. Hopefully, in the upcoming games, our opponents might get a bit nervous knowing that we are ready (to win),” he said.

Reflecting on his performance, the 32-year-old, who scored an unbeaten 25 off 18 balls and finished with figures of two for 19 in four overs, said: “I took time during my innings because the ball wasn’t coming on to the bat. I tried to hit only in the last over (bowled by Ayush Badoni). While bowling, I stuck to back-of-a-length and tried to swing it initially.”

Talking about the challenges that the Tripura team faces back home and its preparation for the tournament, he said: “It rains for around five months in Agartala. So, we can’t do much during that time.

“If we want to prepare, we need to go outside. So, that’s a big challenge for us. We don’t have grounds like here in Gujarat. We didn’t have a camp before the tournament. We just went to Baroda and played three matches against them. We sorted out our combination and stuff.”

“There’s no exposure for us. If you see Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi, they have franchise cricket — their own T20 leagues. And it gets televised as well. That makes a big difference. We have suggested the idea of a T20 league for our State to our cricket association. Hopefully, we’ll get it in a couple of years.”