Meghalaya: Shillong on the verge of being crowned U-23 cricket champions

RESUBELPARA:

The Shillong Cricket Association is on the verge of being crowned the Under-23 cricket champions after reducing the Tura District Cricket Association (TDCA) to 64/7 at the end of Day 2 of the third and final match at the Salpara Stadium in Mendipathar in North Garo Hills (NGH).

The Shillong Cricket Association earlier posted a meagre 187 runs but TDCA were shot out for just 62 on Saturday morning after being seven wickets down in the first innings.

For Shillong, the wrecker in chief in the first innings was Abhishek Kumar, who took eight wickets.

The tall, medium-pacer was almost unplayable, with only Josiah Cheran (32) getting into double figures for TDCA.

In Shillong’s first innings, Ashif Khan scored a half-century, ending his innings with 55, while Swastic Chettri scored 44.

Spinner Manish Sharma for TDCA took six wickets for 55 in 27.4 overs, while captain Cham Sangma chipped in with two wickets with his left-arm spin.

In their second innings, the Shillong boys put on 141/8 before declaring, with almost half of the second day’s play remaining.

Captain Abhishek Gupta scored a quick 24 off 31 balls, with Abhishek Kumar scoring 20 off 17.

TDCA was set a target of 267 in the fourth innings.

Tura’s second innings started better than the first, but opener Purav Agarwal fell on the score of 14.

After that, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, with only Sengpan T Sangma (36) providing some resistance to the rampaging Shillong bowlers.

Swastic Chettri was the main wrecker in chief, taking five of the seven wickets.

TDCA requires another 203 runs to win the contest – something that looks near impossible.

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(Edited by Andre Kongri)