Shillong, December 24: Meghalaya’s U-19 men’s team stormed into the final of the Cooch Behar Trophy by demolishing Arunachal Pradesh by 297 runs in their semifinal match in Anand, Gujarat, today.
The morning of the third day saw Meghalaya dismissed in their second innings for 287 after suffering a slight collapse after they resumed play on 280/6. Nevertheless, that affected the outcome little as Arunachal were set a monumental target of 425 to win.
To recap, Meghalaya had made 220 all out batting first and Arunachal were then bundled out for 83. Highlights saw Meghalaya’s Pushkar Raj Singh and Shubham Rasaily strike centuries – both 111 – in the first and second innings respectively and Banialam Mylliemngap claim 6/28 with the ball.
Arunachal improved on their first outing’s score but were still dismissed for just 127 in their second innings. Balgrik Sangma claimed 3/23 in 8 overs, with the left-arm pace bowler narrowly missing out on a hat-trick. After a decent second wicket partnership, he struck three times in four deliveries in the 17th over to reduce Arunachal from 52/1 to 52/4.
From then on the result was never really in doubt, only how quickly Meghalaya could wrap the match up. The tail wagged a little but Charm Marbaniang polished things off by taking 2/16 while effecting a run out as well.
Kishlay Vishlux bagged 2/19 and Banialam 1/30, giving the latter match figures of 7/58. Meghalaya will meet Nagaland in the final, which will begin on 29 December at a venue to be decided. Nagaland had beaten Sikkim in the other semifinal to progress to the title match.
Meghalaya had lost to Nagaland at home when they met in the round robin stage but since then the state team have been on an upwards trajectory and won all their subsequent matches and will seek to ride that confidence going forwards.
