By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 12: Meghalaya went down by 146 runs to Vidarbha in their opening match of the Women’s Senior One Day Trophy in Chennai today.
This was the first test for the Meghalaya women in the Elite Group E of the BCCI tournament where they will be up against some of the top state teams.
Today Vidarbha won the toss and chose to bat first but were up against great bowling from Meghalaya, who have always been strong in the field.
Riticia Nongbet (1/22) trapped opening batsman S Meshram leg before for a duck with the first ball of her spell but after that Vidarbha regrouped around Vaishnavi Khandkar (54) and BS Fulmali (72), who added 127 runs for the second wicket.
However, their dismissals, by Ajima Sangma (1/19) and Daiaka Warjri (2/24) respectively, saw Vidarbha go from 129/1 to 196 all out in 47.1 overs.
The other Meghalaya bowlers who saw some success today were new guest player Ahireeta Mukherjee (2/34), Luiza Tamang (2/39) and Debasmita Dutta (1/36).
Batting has always been a struggle for Meghalaya’s local players, with long-time guest player Saee Purandare usually contributing the bulk of the runs in seasons gone by.
Today was one of the rare days when she was dismissed cheaply for five runs and thus, despite Tamang’s innings of 20, Meghalaya were dismissed for only 50.
Meghalaya’s next giant opponent will be Karnataka, who they will face on Monday.
