Shillong, December 01: Fourteen wickets fell on the first day of the Meghalaya-Sikkim U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy zonal qualifier in Shillong today, with the hosts taking a commanding position.
At the end of the opening day of the three-day match, Meghalaya are 129/4, leading by 15 runs, after 38 overs.
Sikkim won the toss and elected to bat first under glorious blue skies, but Meghalaya’s Waldora Agitok Sangma and Gavineal Marpna wreaked havoc with the ball as the visitors were reduced at one point to 50/7.
It looked like Meghalaya might be able to skittle Sikkim out before lunch but for some lower order resistance that enabled Sikkim to at least reach the three-figure mark, finally succumbing for 114 all out in 50 overs.
Marpna returned the best figures of the day, finishing with 4-26 from 15 overs, while Sangma claimed 3-12 from 9 overs. Sikkim’s No. 9 batsman, Adarsh Kumar, top-scored with 23. He largely waited out the bowling of the pacers and then attacked the spinners, hitting five fours.
Meghalaya then lost a couple of early wickets to put them on 34/2, but Mrityunjay Bharali (28), Dikshit Parmar (24) and Kush Agarwal steadied the ship. The latter is unbeaten on 36 and has so far struck six fours in his innings.
