SHILLONG: Uttarakhand’s Vineet Saxena and Rajat Bhatia had a day to remember as they batted the entire third day against Meghalaya and added 316 runs to take Uttarakhand to 491/4 in their Ranji Trophy plate group match in Dehradun on Saturday.
Meghalaya could make no headway against the pairing even though they changed around their bowlers a lot in search of a breakthrough.
Resuming on 175/4, after already putting on 83 for the fourth wicket, Saxena and Bhatia added another 316 today to take their team to a 180-run lead over Meghalaya, who had made 311 in their first innings.
Saxena is on 202 not out, while Bhatia is unbeaten on 212.Sunday will be the final day and a win looks unlikely, so Meghalaya’s aim will now shift to looking for a strategic draw in order to remain unbeaten in the tournament. On the otherhand, : Meghalaya continued on their merry way in the Senior Women’s One Day League, winning their fourth match in the plate group on Saturday, this time beating Bihar by 10 wickets in Bhubaneshwar. Bihar won the toss and decided to bat first, but only two batsmen could get into double figures as the team were bowled out for just 104 in 43.4 overs. Trisha Bera took 4/16 for Meghalaya, DD Dutta 3/16 and Pinky Chanda 1/24, while Vandana Mahajan effected two run outs to dismiss the other two batsmen. The chase proved to be a walk in the park for Meghalaya’s openers, who polished off the required runs on their own, hitting 107 in 23 overs. Saee Purandare was not out at the end with 59, while Dutta was not out on 39.
With four wins in four outings Meghalaya are tied at the top of the plate group with 16 points each with Uttarakhand, though Meghalaya are in first place thanks to a better net run rate.
Uttarakhand are going to be Meghalaya’s next opponents and that will be a very important match indeed. The two sides will face each other at the same venue on December 12.
