Kshitij Singhania played the innings of his young career but was unfortunately denied a deserved century as he ended on 94 not out today when Meghalaya were beaten by an innings and 217 runs by Baroda in the U-19 men’s Cooch Behar Trophy at the MCA Ground in Polo here today.
Kshitij hit 14 fours and a solitary six in his 170-ball innings to help the hosts recover after they were 5/3 at one point before ultimately being dismissed for 213 on the afternoon of the third day. This after Baroda declared on their overnight first innings score of 608/6, which was 430 runs more than Meghalaya’s first innings total of 178/10.
The morning started poorly for Meghalaya with three out of the four top batters back in the dugout by the third over, all for ducks and all falling to the pace bowling of Het G Patel, who added a further two wickets at the end of the innings for figures of 5/41. However, captain Dipankar Baruah and Gaurav Narleng then came together for one of the first really good partnerships, with the pair putting on 63 for the fourth wicket, thereby stopping the slide.
Dipankar was out LBW for 32 (68 balls, 7x4s) playing around a delivery and Narleng, with a half-century in sight, was out bowled trying to cut a ball that spun in towards him for 46 from 96 balls (9x4s).
Then came Meghalaya’s second good partnership, of 64 between Kshitij and Shavian Blah (29 from 54, 5x4s). Kshitij brought up his fine half-century with a drive through the covers for four but his partner at the other end, who had hit a fifty of his own in the first innings, was out lofting a ball to mid-on and from then on Kshitij was left with only the tailenders for company.
Although he tried to shield them as much as he could, an attempted quick single at the end of the 75th over saw the No. 11, Gaurav Jyoti Thakuria, run out, leaving Kshitij stranded on 94 not out.
This was Baroda’s fourth victory in a row and a clear demonstration that they are the strongest team in Elite Group A. Conversely, this was Meghalaya’s fourth defeat. MCA Honorary Secretary Gideon Kharkongor noted that the performances of Kshitij, Narleng and Shavian show that the Meghalaya batters can certainly do well against the best sides in the nation but still need to work on areas such as temperament. He also said that fielding and bowling require improvements to make Meghalaya competitive at the Elite level.
Meghalaya will next play Karnataka from 6 December in Bangalore.
