Shillong, Jan 13: Guest-professional Punit Bisht struck the second-highest score in the history of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Chennai today as Meghalaya obliterated Mizoram by 130 runs in their second match of the domestic T20 tournament.
Meghalaya made 230/6 in their allotted 20 overs and restricted Mizoram to 100/9.
Meghalaya thoroughly made amends for their disappointing performance in the first fixture after being put in to bat first by Mizoram.
At the top of the order Yogesh Tiwari hit 53 off 47 deliveries with six fours and two sixes, but the day belonged to Bisht, who is now in his third consecutive season with Meghalaya.
His innings of 146 not out came off just 51 balls, making it the second-highest score in the history of the competition, only behind Shreyas Iyer’s 147 off 55 deliveries, which was made for Mumbai against Sikkim in 2019. At 286.27, the Meghalaya captain’s phenomenal strike rate is also the second-highest for any 100-run-plus innings in the tournament. This time he is behind Rishabh Pant’s strike rate of 305.26, which was achieved when the India international hit 116 not out off 38 balls for Delhi versus Himachal Pradesh in 2018.
Bisht, however, did set a new tournament record of his own – he hammered the Mizoram bowlers for 17 sixes, which is two more than Iyer achieved in the above-mentioned innings. Bisht reached his fifty in 26 deliveries and accelerated further from there, getting his ton after facing 15 more balls and then adding another 46 runs in the last 10 balls he faced.
Together, Bisht and Tiwari put on 120 runs for the third wicket in just 10.4 overs in the middle after Meghalaya had lost two wickets for 28 runs on the board.
In the chase, spinner Aditya Singhania returned the best figures for Meghalaya (4/15). Akash Kumar Choudhary claimed the first two wickets of the second innings off consecutive deliveries but was denied in his pursuit of a hat-trick. He finished with figures of 2/17.
Kilco Marak also put in a good spell, taking 2/5 in two overs. One of his wickets was that of Pawan KB, Mizoram’s top scorer, who made 33 runs. Abhay Negi (1/16) took the final wicket to fall in the last over of the match.
Meghalaya will next take on Bihar on Friday.
(File photo of Punit Bisht)
