Shillong, December 2: Gavineal Marpna took another three wickets to reduce Sikkim to 90/6 in their second innings here on Saturday on the second day in the U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy zonal qualifier.
The visitors still need to make another 59 runs just to make Meghalaya bat again. Marpna took 3-20 today and, adding his figures from the first innings, now has match figures of 7-46.
Resuming their innings in the morning on 129/4, Meghalaya extended their advantage, finally being bowled out after lunch for 263 in 85.5 overs, ending with a huge first innings lead of 149.
In getting that far they had Kush Agarwal (79) and Kirtirajsinh Raulji (63 not out) to thank. Agarwal had ended the first day on 36 and added a further 43 runs on the morning of the second. He cracked 15 fours in his innings of 111 deliveries.
Meghalaya, however, lost their last four wickets for only 14 runs. Sikkim’s Ingsho Limboo was the standout performer for his team in the field. Not only did he take 4-55 with the ball, he also pulled off two catches and effected a run out.
In start contrast to their first innings (where they lost half their side for just 37 runs) Sikkim began well in the second, putting on 34 runs for the opening wicket before Gavineal Marpna came on to bowl his left-arm spin.
Marpna, who took four wickets in the first innings, claimed another two in only the second over of his spell on day two, first trapping Karan Gupta lbw for 17 and then bowling Arif Ahmed Ansari the very next delivery. If there was one area the hosts have to work on it is their fielding, as a few too many runs were given away carelessly.
Nevertheless, Sikkim struggled against the Meghalaya bowling, although Dhiraj Kumar Mahato and Tanber Alam put on 47 for the third wicket. However, both members of this pair fell with the score on 81 and two more fell before stumps to leave Sikkim tottering. Mahato top-scored for Sikkim with 30 runs.
