Shillong, Oct 19: Meghalaya lost their first match of the U-23 men’s Col CK Nayudu Trophy 2025-26 Elite Group by an innings and 80 runs to Baroda in Vadodara today.
Unlike some of the other BCCI competitions this year, where Meghalaya is playing in the plate group, the state U-23 men’s team have qualified for the Elite Group in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy, a multi-day tournament.
The match began on 16 October where Meghalaya won the toss and opted to field first. Baroda put up a commanding total of 494/6 declared and then dismissed Meghalaya twice for 273 and 141.
PM Santhosh (4/61) rattled the opposition top order on the opening day with the fast bowler taking three wickets to leave Baroda on 27/3. However, Jadhav Rajvirsinh (203) and Priyanshu Moliya (193) settled down and batted long into the day, putting on 303 for the fourth wicket until Priyanshu was dismissed off the bowling of Sudhir Sahani (1/115). Shavian Blah (1/62) removed Henil Patel for 60 and Santhosh’s dismissal of Jadav led to Baroda declaring just shy of 500.
Meghalaya’s finished their first innings more than 200 runs short of Baroda’s but there were several good knocks in the total of 273, with three batters getting half-centuries – captain Kevin Christopher (89 from 211 balls, 9x4s, 2x6s), Md Asif Khan (60 from 89, 12x4s, 1×6) and Sachin Kumar (58 from 156, 9x4s). The visitors had even crossed the 200-run mark for three batters dismissed but Meghalaya then lost the remaining seven wickets for just 65 runs.
Baroda then enforced the follow-on and two Meghalaya wickets fell on the evening of the third day but Avinash Rai (48 from 104, 8x4s) took his team to stumps in the company of Kevin.
The fourth day, however, proved too difficult to bat through and Kevin was dismissed for 7 in the first over of play. Avinash then fell before his fifty and, while Manish Sharma (22 from 78, 4x4s) and Shavian (21 from 28, 3x4s) provided some resistance, Meghalaya’s innings was wrapped up in 73.5 overs. Priyanshu returned the best figures, of 4/26, for Baroda.
Meghalaya will remain on the road for their next match when they travel to Jammu to play Jammu & Kashmir from 26 October.
