Shillong, Oct 20: Eighteen wickets fell on the third day of Meghalaya Ranji Trophy 2026-27 plate group match against Manipur at the MCA Ground here today, with the visitors set a target of 276 to win.
Manipur resumed their first innings on 173/2, chasing Meghalaya’s first innings total of 380/10. A flurry of wickets today saw Manipur lose 8/104 to be bowled out for 277, which gave the hosts a first innings lead of 103.
However, Meghalaya couldn’t capitalise on this as they were then dismissed for 172 in their second innings. At stumps Manipur were 11/0, requiring a further 265 on the fourth and final day tomorrow.
Overnight on 93, Karnajit Yumnam reached his century and then promptly got out to Ram Gurung (3/78). Ram also accounted for Manipur’s second-highest scorer, No. 9 Rajkumar Singh, who made a brisk 43 from 33 deliveries (4x4s, 3x6s).
The other two bowlers who had success were Abhishek Kumar (4/60) and PM Santhosh (3/69) – all 10 wickets fell to pace bowling.
Meghalaya then had the chance to bat Manipur out of the game but it wasn’t to be as the home team’s batters struggled. First innings centurion Kevin Christopher was out for a duck, while Arpit Bhatewara (22) and Swastic Chettri (13) couldn’t repeat their fifties from the first day. Guest professional Rahul Dalal top-scored with 39, closely followed by the other guest player, Ajay Duhan (36). Jotin Pheiroijam had the best figures, with 4/21.
Manipur had to bat 3 overs before stumps and the pair of Ronald Longjam (2*) and Bashid Muhammad (9*) held out until the end.
(Meghalaya Cricket Association file photo of Abhishek Kumar)
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