Meghalaya in commanding position in Cooch Behar Trophy

From a Reporter

SHILLONG: A century by Ankit Kumar Singh helped Meghalaya to 281 on the opening day of their U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy plate group match against Manipur while the opponent were on 29/5 at stumps in Goalpara today.

However, Meghalaya are on the back foot in the U-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy plate group match against Arunachal Pradesh in Mangaldai where they are trailing by 88 runs.

In Goalpara Manipur won the toss and chose to field first. Ankit struck 128 (24 fours, 1 six) and put on 158 runs for the fourth wicket with captain Raghav Kapur, who made 65. A few helpful contributions down the order saw Meghalaya reach 281 all out in 72.1 overs.

A good bowling performance by Abhishek (4/11) then saw Manipur reduced to 29/5 in 15 overs at stumps, still 252 runs behind.

It was a very different story in the Nayudu Trophy, where Meghalaya won the toss in the morning and opted to bat first.

The Meghalaya team were skittled out for just 48, however, with only Rohit Shah (12) getting into double figures.

Excellent bowling by spinner Kartik Pawar then restricted Arunachal to 163 all out. Pawar claimed 7/26, including the important wickets of Asif Hossain (49) and S Nagar (35). Arbin Singh picked up 2/57, while Akash Kumar took 1/44.

Meghalaya thus went into their second innings trailing by 115, but held on up to stumps without losing a wicket. With 27 on the board, Meghalaya are 88 runs behind. At the crease are Ibitlang Thabah (13 not out) and Kishan Lyngdoh (10 not out).

Also Read: Meghalaya beat Mizoram in U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy