By Our Reporter
Shillong, Dec 13: Manish Sharma claimed his fourth five-wicket haul in a row for Meghalaya with figures of 5/18 against Mizoram on the first day of their U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy match in Bhubaneshwar today.
Sharma continued his stellar form after taking 5/52 and 5/42 against Sikkim and 6/110 against Manipur.
Mizoram won the toss in the morning and chose to bat first but were skittled for just 83.
Mizoram started with a 41-run opening stand but collapsed after that as their batters had no answer to the spin of Sharma, who bowled 14.5 overs and gave away just 18 runs for his five wickets.
Purav Agarwal, who was brought into the playing 11 for this match, claimed 3/21 while Wankitlang Nongpluh bagged 1/20.
Meghalaya lost an early wicket in their first innings but Mrinal Das and Sachin Kumar batted well together in a second-wicket partnership of 48. Both batters fell before tea and both, coincidentally, scored 33 off 63 deliveries.
At stumps, captain Kevin Christopher (37*) and Pawan Singh (16*) were holding the fort and had put on an unbeaten 52 runs together as Meghalaya reached 124/3, giving them a lead of 41.
