GUWAHATI: Meghalaya lost to a formidable Puducherry by 74 runs in the Round XII Plate Vijay Hazare Trophy match at Shastri Medan, Anand (Gujarat) on Monday.
Opting to bat first, Puducherry put up a mammoth total of 324 runs in the allotted 50 overs, thanks to an unbeaten 136 by P.K Dogra and helped by poor bowling by medium pacers Abhay Negi and Mark Ingty who leaked runs at a rate of close to eight per over.
In reply, Meghalaya started shakily and once again the openers failed to perform apart from not keeping the scoreboard moving besides allowing too many dot balls to the opposition bowlers.
The middle order nevertheless took charge with the in form Yogesh Nagar scoring a brilliant century as he remained unbeaten on 109 runs(113 balls) while another guest player Gurinder Singh chipped in with a brisk 72 runs(71 balls). But for the big knocks by the duo that helped the team reach a respectable 250 for five in 50 overs, Meghalaya would have struggled to put up a decent score.
Punit Bisht of Meghalaya is the second highest scorer in the Vijay Hazare Trophy among all groups with 502 runs, behind Abhinav Mukund of Tamil Nadu with 513 runs.