Shillong, Nov 15: The Ranji Trophy plate group match between Puducherry and Meghalaya ended in a draw today, with play on the fourth and final day cut short due to bad weather.
Meanwhile, in the U-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy match in Shillong, Meghalaya require 160 runs to win with two days remaining.
With Cyclone Gaja approaching Puducherry only 17.2 overs were possible on the last day, which helped the hosts as they were in a little trouble in their second innings, finishing the day on 129/7, a lead of 192. Meghalaya finished the contest with one point, while Puducherry earned three thanks to taking a first innings lead of 63 runs.
Resuming play on 95/4, Puducherry struggled against the spin bowling of Gurinder Singh. Gurinder had taken all four wickets yesterday and claimed one more today to finish the second innings with figures of 5/44 and match figures of 9/150. Aditya Singhania took a brace of wickets today to end with figures of 2/10 in what was a very decent away performance by the team as a whole.
U-23 COL CK NAYUDU TROPHY
Meanwhile, in the U-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy, Meghalaya require another 160 runs to win, but there is a precarious balance between them and opponents Nagaland as the hosts ended the second day on 52/4 in their second innings.
The day started and ended with Meghalaya batting, as 18 wickets fell in all.
The hosts started on the back foot, on 125/6 in their first innings. However, a 65-run partnership between Tiwari (32) and Rohit Shah (35) as well as smaller contributions lower down the order took Meghalaya to 178 all out, a lead of five runs.
Then, in Nagaland’s second innings, three wickets by captain-fast bowler Akash Kumar reduced the visitors to 36/3 and a further wicket fell to Arbin Singh to leave Nagaland on 70/4.
However, a fantastic fifth wicket partnership between Vinayak and Arvind Verma coughed up 136 runs for the visitors, with Verma (51) making his second half-century of the match and Vinayak registering a century (108).
Verma, though, was neatly caught behind by a diving Shah off the bowling of Kumar and that led to a batting collapse, with Nagaland losing their last six wickets for just 10 runs.
Kumar almost took a hat-trick, while spinner Arbin also picked up another couple of scalps to bowl out Nagaland for 216.
Kumar finished with 7/33 (match figures of 9/74) and Arbin 3/55 (match figures of 7/109).
Chasing 212 for victory, Meghalaya, however, were a little shaky, with four wickets falling for 52 on the board. They will need to negotiate the early overs tomorrow and build partnerships in what will be a challenging chase.
(Photo contributed by the Meghalaya Cricket Association. The featured photo is of a Nagaland batsman being bowled by Meghalaya’s Akash Kumar (unseen))