Shillong, Oct 18: Meghalaya had a great day with the bat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but their total of 148/5 was not enough as Services managed to chase it down with just an over to spare in Mohali on Tuesday.
After a few ordinary batting performances, Meghalaya’s line-up clicked after they won the toss and opted to bat first.
Pushed up the order, Swarajeet Das delivered with a fine 38 of 48 deliveries. Raj Biswa added 23 from 22 and guest professional Punit Bisht 42 from 26. The latter had five hits to the fence and Lerry Sangma (12 from 7 balls) struck the only six of the innings, sending the ball over mid-wicket for a maximum. Yogesh Tiwari also hit a rapid 13 from seven deliveries as Meghalaya plundered 21 runs from the last two overs.
Chengkam Sangma (1/21) snatched a wicket in the first over of the chase and Services were then in trouble after being reduced to 26/3 at the end of four overs.
Aanshul Gupta (44) and Vikas Hathwala (55), however, added 87 for the fourth wicket before they were dismissed, by Anish Charak (2/8) and Abhishek Kumar (1/37) respectively, but by then Services were less than 40 runs from victory. They were still pushed by Meghalaya but crossed the finish line with an over and five wickets to spare.
There were plenty of positives to take away for Meghalaya from Tuesday’s match and it will look to push on for victory when they face Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday.
