Cooch Behar Trophy
By Our Reporter
Shillong, Nov 23: Despite the hope that they could bat long into the day, Meghalaya were dismissed for 172 in their second innings to give Delhi victory by an innings and 191 runs on the morning of the fourth and final day of their U-19 men’s Cooch Behar Trophy Elite Group A match at the MCA Ground in Polo here.
Resuming play today on 141/5, the hosts added 31 runs before the match was wrapped up in just under an hour as the tail was unable to wag much; mornings often favour bowlers in Shillong due to overnight moisture in the pitch.
All 10 wickets were claimed by Delhi’s two opening bowlers – Udhav Mohan taking 5/59 in 24.4 overs and Arnav S Bugga 5/46 in 22. That gave them match figures of 9/147 and 8/88 respectively.
Arnav (114) also hit a century in Delhi’s only innings of 623/5 declared, along with Dhanya Nakra (130) while Aaryavir Sehwag (297) just missed out on a triple ton.
For Meghalaya, Gaurav Narleng performed well with the bat in the first innings for 95, while Kshitij Singhania hit 62 to get their team to 260/10.
The bowlers then toiled long and hard but did not find much success for their efforts.
The Meghalaya team will remain in Shillong for their next match when they take on Baroda from November 28. Baroda have won all three of their matches so far this season by convincing margins and should prove to be strong opponents once again.
The heavy defeat highlights the need for Meghalaya to strengthen their batting resilience and bowling effectiveness as they face a formidable Baroda side in their upcoming fixture. With Baroda’s unbeaten run and dominant performances this season, Meghalaya will need to regroup quickly and put forth a more determined effort to compete at this level in the Cooch Behar Trophy.
The loss serves as a learning curve for the young Meghalaya side, who showed flashes of promise but were unable to sustain their performance across all departments. With Baroda up next, the team will need to address their shortcomings and build on individual positives.