Meghalaya’s bowlers performed fantastically well but the team were still beaten by 74 runs by Maharashtra in their fourth match in Group C of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in Mohali today.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya women’s side saw their game against Odisha washed out after only 4.3 overs in Bangalore.
Maharashtra were made to bat first after Meghalaya won the toss and were all out for 144 in exactly 20 overs. Unfortunately for Meghalaya, they were dismissed for just 70 as their opponents roared back in the second innings.
Twenty-year-old Abhishek Kumar shone with the ball, claiming 4/37, including the wicket of India international and Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, who he trapped lbw. This is the young Kumar’s debut season playing for the senior Meghalaya team and these are his best figures and have come against a big team. He has also claimed a wicket in each of the previous three fixtures as well.
The other two bowlers who had a good day were Chengkam Sangma (2/19) and Swarajeet Das (2/21). Among their wickets, Chengkam dismissed Maharashtra’s ‘impact player’ (a BCCI innovation for this season meaning a substitute) for a duck, while Das, who was Meghalaya’s impact player, took the wicket of Indian Premier League player Rahul Tripathi.
The other two scalps were claimed by guest professional Rajesh Bishnoi (1/15) and Chirag Khurana (1/32).
Meghalaya altered their batting order a little for the chase but the change did not help much, with only two batters getting into double figures – Yogesh Tiwari (26) and Raj Biswa (17) – as the team were bundled out for 70.
Meghalaya have now lost three games in a row and they will be up against Services on Tuesday in what should be another challenging match.
Meanwhile, the start to the women’s Group A match was delayed by bad weather. When play was able to begin, Meghalaya chose to field first after winning the toss. Ajima Sangma (1/7) struck in the very first over but rain fell again and the match could not resume.
On Tuesday, Meghalaya are scheduled to face Nagaland.
