Shillong, December 1: Meghalaya are in a strong position despite being bowled out on the first day of their U-19 men’s Cooch Behar Trophy 2025-26 plate group match against Arunachal Pradesh at the MCA Ground here today.
Made to bat first after Arunachal won the toss, Meghalaya were 205 all out and then reduced their opponents to 94/6 at stumps, giving them a lead of 111.
Some uneven bounce and movement off the pitch made things difficult for the hosts but runs still came fairly freely, with Meghalaya’s run rate above 5 an over at the start. Things slowed down later but the innings rate was still well above 4 as Meghalaya were all out in 47.4 overs.
All but three Meghalaya batters got into double figures but Arunachal’s bowlers managed to break partnerships before they got too large.
Sameer Choudhury hit 28 from 39 balls at the top of the order but Meghalaya slipped to 108/5 before Gaurav Jyoti Thakuria (33 from 76, 4x4s) was joined out in the middle by Rudra Singh Rathore (42 from 40, 4x4s, 1×6).
Rudra got off the mark first ball with the only six of the Meghalaya innings, smacking a high full toss from Nabam Gania (1/9 in 2 overs) over the midwicket boundary.
Gaurav and Rudra added 56 for the sixth wicket. Once the latter was out, however, the rest followed in short order, though Meghalaya were at least able to cross the 200-run milestone, which was a morale boost. For Arunachal, spinner Surya Singh was the most successful bowler with figures of 4/39 in 14.4 overs.
As Arunachal’s batters came out to begin their innings, Meghalaya gave the new ball to pacer Apandanka Marak and leg spinner Mewankitbok Kharpuri.
The visitors lost opener Patey Tacha to Mewankitbok (1/25 in 9.1 overs) in the fourth over but there was then a 46-run partnership between Nabam Rikam (26 from 45 balls) and Deepak Kumar Yadav (28 from 35). They were removed by Angkit Tamang (1/16 in 6) and Gaurav Narleng (2/20 in 6) respectively and the home team kept chipping away, leaving Arunachal six down for under a hundred runs when stumps were called.
Both the other two Meghalaya bowlers used today also claimed wickets – Benedict Jones Makdoh took 1/15 in 3 overs and Apandanka 1/17 in 8. Meghalaya will look to wrap up the Arunachal innings tomorrow morning with enough of a first innings lead to really take the game by the scruff of the neck.
