Shillong, December 08: Meghalaya are just 7 wickets away from a convincing victory over Arunachal Pradesh in their U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy match after the hosts completely dominated the second day’s play at the MCA Cricket Ground here on Friday.
Captain Rushikesh Jadhav claimed 5 wickets in Arunachal’s first innings and Meghalaya enforced the follow-on after dismissing their opponents for just 116. Arunachal were 13/3 at stumps on the second day and need to bat out the entire last day tomorrow to hope for a draw.
Resuming play on 430/5, Meghalaya scored another 74 runs before declaring on 504/8 in 116 overs, after both Kush Agarwal (96) and Joydeep Deb (47) fell just short of individual milestones. All three of Meghalaya’s wickets to fall today were taken by Milon Dey, who finished with figures of 6-173 in 35 overs for the visitors.
Arunachal then struggled with the bat, with their best partnership being 41 runs for the fourth wicket between Manoj Singh and Sushovan Mazumder. The latter would end up being Arunachal’s top-scorer with 36 runs.
Jadhav claimed 5-43, while team mates Gavineal Marpna (2-32), Waldora Agitok Sangma (1-1) and Kirtirajsinh Raulji (1-14) were also among the wickets.
Leading by a massive 388 runs Meghalaya had no hesitation in enforcing the follow-on and quickly dismissed another 3 Arunachal batsmen.
Right-arm fast bowler Sudhir Sahani uprooted the stumps of Singh and Mazumder before Marpna trapped Latyir Damin lbw, which was the last action of the day.
