Meghalaya’s bowlers had a decent outing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but the batting was a little bit of a let down and consigned the team to a 66-run defeat to Chhattisgarh in Jaipur today.
Although expensive, Akash Kumar Choudhary (3/36 in 4 overs) and Anish Charak (3/41 in 4) both claimed three wickets each and Riboklang Hynniewta (1/19 in in 3) the other as Chhattisgarh were restricted to 162/7 in their full 20 overs after losing the toss and being made to bat first. Although he was wicketless, Kilco Marak did a fine job of restricting runs and frustrating the batters as he gave away only 14 runs in 3 overs.
Four Chhattisgarh batters were dismissed for ducks, including one in the very first over of the innings to Choudhary.
The batting, however, has yet to click and Meghalaya’s top score was just 20 by guest player Nakul Verma at the top of the order, while fellow guest player Rajesh Bishnoi made 15 at No. 3. Choudhary also finished unbeaten with 10 at the tail end of the innings but Meghalaya were out of the running by then and were restricted to 96/9.
Meghalaya will next play Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. Like Meghalaya, J&K have also lost all four of their matches so far but will not be pushovers.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, Meghalaya will play in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy against Tamil Nadu.
