Meghalaya and Mizoram are in a tricky position after the second day of their Ranji Trophy match in Nadiad, Gujarat, though Mizoram will be the happier of the two teams at the moment after taking a first innings lead.
Starting their innings this morning after bowling out Mizoram for 252 yesterday, Meghalaya were all out for 171, 81 runs short of their opponents’ first innings total. At stumps, Mizoram were 37/3 in their second innings, thus having a lead of 118.
Kishan Lyngdoh, who has shown himself to be adept at the 50-over and 20-over game but who struggled in his maiden season of first class cricket last season, showed that he has real potential in the long format of the sport, as he struck 40 from 118 deliveries in a knock that consisted of seven fours. This was his highest score in first class cricket.
For a while, he and Swarajeet Das (33) did well, with the latter also setting a new personal best in this format. However, Meghalaya were plagued by the bowling of Mizoram guest professional Avinash Yadav, who ended up with six wickets, including that of Kishan.
At one point, Meghalaya were reduced to 98/7 before Lerry Sangma (25), guest professional Rajesh Bishnoi (35 not out) and Akash K Choudhary (19) rescued the situation somewhat but the team were still dismissed for under 200.
Mizoram had to face 23 over before stumps and were able to limp to 37/3. Despite the loss of wickets, crucially, they still have guest professional Taruwar Kohli (8*) at the crease and the first innings centurion will be hoping to produce another good knock.
The three wickets were taken by Meghalaya’s Bishnoi (1/4), Dippu Ch Sangma (1/7) and Choudhary (1/9) and they will aim to make further quick inroads tomorrow.
