SHILLONG:
Meghalaya defeated Arunachal Pradesh by an innings and 78 runs on the third day of their U-16 boys’ Vijay Merchant Trophy match in Cuttack today.
This was the team’s first win of the tournament after drawing with Nagaland last and losing to Sikkim in their opening fixture.
Incidentally, this result closely mirrored the victory by an innings and 76 runs that Meghalaya enjoyed over Arunachal in a different tournament, the U-19 men’s Cooch Behar Trophy, just three days ago.
Resuming their second innings on 31/5, Arunachal were bowled out for 110 today. With their first innings score of 116, this was still well short of Meghalaya’s 304 in their first and only innings.
Paisal Ali and Gaurav Jyoti Thakuria shared the five remaining wickets between them. Ali took three to finish with 4/29 in 10 overs, with one of his scalps having come yesterday evening. Thakuria nabbed 2/10 in 3.3 overs, dismissing opener Armaan Jain, who batted almost right through the innings, and then the No. 11 batter off consecutive balls. Thakuria will thus be on a hat-trick when he bowls in his next match. Remarkably, he was also in line for a hat-trick today as he had taken the last two Arunachal wickets off consecutive deliveries in the first innings as well but he was denied the landmark.
His team mate, Apandanka Marak, however, did claim a hat-trick yesterday but he was unable to take any more wickets today and finished with figures of 4/50 in 12 overs. Having taken 3/43 in the first innings, Apandanka ended with match figures of 7/93. Thakuria bagged 6/23 in the first innings, thus giving him better match returns of 8/33.
The other highlight in the match was Rudra Singh Rathore’s 107 yesterday with the bat.
He and the other Meghalaya players will be looking to turn this win into positive momentum for their next match, which will be against Mizoram from 16 December.