Shillong, Feb 5: A blistering display of fast bowling saw Nagaland dismissed for a mere 74 in their first innings of the Ranji Trophy plate group match against Meghalaya at the MCA Ground here on Monday.
This was in response to Meghalaya’s 295 all out in their first outing, which gave the hosts a huge lead of 221. Declining to impose the follow-on, Meghalaya had a bat again but were 78/6 when bad light stopped play.
Overcast conditions helped the fast bowling pair of PM Santhosh and Abhishek Kumar, who bowled in tandem as Nagaland were skittled in just 18.4 overs.
Santhosh nabbed 5/18 on his return to the team and Abhishek netted 5/52, with the pacers putting the ball in the right areas and letting swing, movement off the pitch and the batters’ own mistakes to do the rest.
Tohuka (17) and Afzal (32) were going well for Nagaland until the former presented the easiest of catches for Badonnam Mylliemngap at mid-on. After that, the remaining wickets fell in a heap on either side of lunch.
Santhosh was to get to his five-wicket haul but he could not make it six as Abhishek bagged the last by destroying the stumps of Neizekho.
With so much time left in the match and with an eye on the semifinal, which Meghalaya has already qualified for, captain Kevin Christopher thought it best his boys got some extra batting practice.
However, conditions still remained a challenge and Meghalaya were reduced to 78/6 by the time stumps were finally called for. This, though, has given them a lead of 299, which should be enough even if they were not to add any further runs on Tuesday.
Carrying on from where he left off in the first innings, Nishanta Chakraborty was the lone batter to get on top of the bowling and was not out on 35 at the close of play.
Earlier, Nishanta was out for 134 in 243 balls (21x4s, 2x6s) in Meghalaya’s first innings. The team had resumed on 261/7 and added a further 34 runs before being bowled out for 295 on Monday morning.
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