SHILLONG, Feb 21: Uttarakhand defeated Meghalaya by six wickets in their first match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one day tournament in Chennai on Sunday.
Uttarakhand won the toss and elected to field in the plate group fixture. Meghalaya then made a respectable 242/6 in their 50 overs, with guest-professional Sanjay Yadav top-scoring with a rapid 81 off 49 deliveries.
Fellow guest-professionals Punit Bisht (48) and Ravi Teja (44) both got good starts but will have been a bit disappointed at not going on to make bigger scores. Among the local players, Wanlambok Nongkhlaw and Lerry Sangma both got to 29 before getting out. This was the best List A score for both Meghalaya players.
The second innings began well for Meghalaya, with Abhay Negi dismissing Uttarakhand opener Kamal for a duck in the very first over. However, Jay Bista (141) and Kunal Chandela (55) put on 126 runs for the second wicket before the latter was caught by Dippu Sangma off the bowling of Aditya Singhania.
Bista finally became Negi’s second victim in the 43rd over but it was a bit too late as Uttarakhand only required a further eight runs to win, which they accomplished in the 45th over.
Negi finished with figures of 2/36, Singhania 1/42 and Yadav 1/49.
Meghalaya will next take on Sikkim on Tuesday.
