Shillong, Oct 27: Arpit Bhatewara achieved a brilliant milestone with a double century for Meghalaya against Sikkim on the third day of their Ranji Trophy 2025-26 plate group match at the MCA Ground here today.
Batting the entire Meghalaya innings, he was the last man out and fell for exactly 200, an knock that included 25 fours. Meghalaya were all out for 405, with a first innings lead of 59 over Sikkim, who made 346 in their first foray.
At stumps, Sikkim were 96/2 in their second innings, leading by 37. Although there is still scope for a winner, a draw seems increasingly likely unless Meghalaya can rip through Sikkim’s line-up on the last day tomorrow.
It was a rocky start for Meghalaya in the morning, as they lost Kishan Lyngdoh for 102, with the prolific batter out off the second ball he faced without adding to his overnight total. The very next delivery, new guest player Rahul Dalal was bowled by the same bowler, Kranthi Kumar. Both batters had been trying to leave the deliveries they got out to – Kishan edged his to wicketkeeper Arun Chettri while the ball kissed Rahul’s bat and, unluckily for him, hit his stumps.
Kranthi would go on to remove two tailenders to finish with figures of 6/86, his first five-wicket haul at the senior level in any format.
At the other end, Arpit was running out of partners. His best collaborator in the tail was Aryan Borah, whose sole job was to survive long enough for Arpit to get his double century. The spin bowler was doing this very well and faced 23 deliveries successfully. However, it was Arpit who had a slight case of the nerves when on 199. He attempted a suicidal run, with both batters ending up at the non-striker’s end. Aryan then sacrificed his wicket for Arpit to keep going and he eventually did achieve his goal.
Crucially, Meghalaya got the first innings lead but it was not by much and Sikkim were able to knock off the deficit, though they lost two wickets in the process to Akash Chaudhary (2/30). The visitors had Ashish Thapa (49 not out) and K Sai Satwik (19 not out) at the crease when stumps were called.
