Shillong, Jan 15: Meghalaya look to be in a strong position against Manipur at the end of the second day of their U-23 men’s Col CK Nayudu Trophy match in Surat, with a string of solid performances with bat and ball.
Hosts Manipur won the toss on Sunday and chose to bat first but were bowled out for 257 in a long innings of 121.5 overs. Manish Sharma did most of the damage for Meghalaya, claiming 6/50 in 36 overs. He is having a tremendously successful tournament, having bagged 14 wickets in the opening match against Sikkim.
At stumps on Monday, Meghalaya were 230/4 in 59 overs, still trailing by 27 runs. Three batters have made valuable half-centuries already – Nishanta Chakraborty (66 from 62 deliveries), Aman Kumar (65 from 141) and captain Kevin Christopher (57 not out from 90).
Nishanta, who struck 11 fours and a six, and Aman put on 91 for the second wicket with the former taking charge but Aman’s support was just as important. Kevin will look to first get his team past the Manipur total on Tuesday before looking for a century. He will have Joydeepan Deb for company, with the latter not out on 27 from 53 balls.
Earlier, Manipur played the long game, stretching out their first innings over two days and going at barely 2 runs an over. Opening batter Champion was their mainstay as he carved out 102 from 329 deliveries, batting for 103.5 overs. Suresh Singh made 39 but after Manish broke that partnership, there was a series of dismissals that left Manipur on 134/6.
That was when Kiran Laishram (65 not out from 193) came to the crease and with Champion made 93 for the seventh wicket, which got Manipur on their way to their eventual total. Manish toiled for 36 overs to claim 6/50 while Abhishek Kumar sent down 28 overs to bag 3/44, with 16 and 14 maidens respectively.
