Shillong: Meghalaya moved into a commanding position on the second day of the Ranji Trophy plate group match against Nagaland here on Wednesday by enforcing the follow-on as they look to win the match by an innings with two days to go.
Resuming on 338/5, Meghalaya added another 51 runs before they were bowled out for 389, their highest score in the competition.
Armed with the ball, Meghalaya’s fast bowler Lakhan Singh and guest/professional spinner Gurinder Singh took turns to claim three wickets apiece to leave Nagaland tottering on 90/6 at tea break.
The introduction of Aditya Singhania after the break then did wonders as the spinner bagged three lower order wickets, while Gurinder claimed the last to dismiss Nagaland for 106. Gurinder finished with figures of 4/37 while Singhania claimed 3/12 and Lakhan 3/23.
With the visitors still trailing by 283, Meghalaya captain Jason Lamare had no hesitation in enforcing the follow-on, but this time around Nagaland’s openers — Nitesh (14) and Sedezhalie (17) — showed greater resistance and remained unbeaten when play was called off due to bad light.
Nagaland will resume their second innings on Thursday, still 252 runs behind Meghalaya and will need to bat well to avoid a looming innings defeat.
