Shillong, Nov 15: Meghalaya put on an improved batting display in the second innings of the U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy match against Himachal Pradesh but could not avoid defeat by an inning and 230 runs on Monday.

Himachal were playing on their home turf in Bilaspur and had amassed 541/8 declared in their first and only innings in response to Meghalaya’s first innings total of 113 on Day 1.

Raghav Magotra picked up 3/117 to finish with the best figures for Meghalaya, while Mrinal Das took 2/102, Banialam Mylliemngap 1/61 and Navin Kr Ray 1/87.

As it was very unlikely that Meghalaya would extricate themselves from the scrape they were in, it was highly entertaining to see Mrinal Das plunder 52 from 27 balls at the top of the order in Meghalaya’s second innings with 11 fours. Anmol Sunar struck 32, to go along with his 33 from the first innings, while Avinash Rai contributed 36. There was another 30-plus score further down the order, with Bharat Gurung hitting 31.

The first wicket partnership between Das and Mrityunjay Bharali (12) was worth 67 runs and a further 56 was made by Sunar and Rai. However, despite all this good work, Meghalaya were still all out for 198.