U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy, Round 5

Shillong, Dec 27: It was a mixed day for Meghalaya on the second day of their U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy match against Nagaland after the hosts performed well with the ball but struggled with the bat here on Wednesday.

At stumps Meghalaya were leading by 142 runs, with four wickets of their second innings remaining, setting up what should be a fascinating final day tomorrow.

Starting their day on 4/1, Nagaland were finally dismissed for 178, 72 runs behind their opponents’ score of 250. Three batsmen – Prasant (46), Tohuka (43) and Sunjib (46 not out) – made it into the forties, but no one went on from there.

Swastic Chettri picked up another five-wicket haul for the hosts, including the important wickets of Prasant and Tohuka. The spinner ended with figures of 5-38.

Meghalaya then found it increasingly difficult in their second innings as Nagaland frustrated the former’s hopes of building up an unassailable lead. At the close the hosts were 70/6.

Prasant returned with the ball to take 3-23, while Arjun snapped up 2-20 for the visitors. Dikshit Parmar, who scored 100 on day one, is arguably Meghalaya’s best hope of some more runs tomorrow. He is currently unbeaten on 27 with Abhishek Gupta for company (8 not out).

(Photo contributed by the Meghalaya Cricket Association)