Shillong, November 17: Meghalaya and Mizoram were involved in an entertaining contest in the State A Trophy 2025-26 plate group today in Chandigarh, with Meghalaya coming through by 23 runs.
Dipankar Baruah hit a fantastic century, finishing the Meghalaya innings on 101 not out from 139 balls (9x4s, 2x6s), while Md Ashif Khan was not out in a run-a-ball 72 (6x4s, 1×6).
Victory means that Meghalaya go into the final with a perfect win record of five from five. For Mizoram, who are second in the group, this was their first defeat.
Meghalaya won the toss and elected to bat first but the match was interrupted after it began due to a wet outfield and the overs were reduced to 44 per side. Meghalaya were 217/2 at the end of their innings and Mizoram were set a revised target of 220 to win from 44 overs according to the VJD Method. They were ultimately bowled out for 196 in 41.3 overs.
Dipankar and Ashif paced themselves, starting cautiously before accelerating once settled in. Eight different bowlers were utilised by Mizoram but without much success.
The total was a gettabe one and Mizoram started on the right note with Johan making 85 from just 69 balls and Sahil Sharma 66 from 96. The two made 139 for the first wicket and had put their team in the driver’s seat. However, Johan was removed by Shavian Blah (2/18 in 5 overs) and that led to a total collapse in the batting order, with all 10 wickets falling for just 57 runs.
Denikcheng Marak finished as the most successful Meghalaya bowler with figures of 3/49 in 9 overs, while Chandra Bahadur Thapa claimed 2/33 in 9 for a sensational win against top quality opponents.
Meghalaya and Mizoram will meet again, this time in the final, on Wednesday in Mohali.
