Vijay Hazare Trophy: Nafees takes 6, Punit strikes 85 as M’laya crush Manipur

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 11, 2021

Nafees Siddique took a brilliant 6/39 in his very first one day match at the national level as Meghalaya crushed Manipur by 111 runs in their Plate Group fixture of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Jaipur today. 

Earlier, guest professionals Punit Bisht and Chirag Khurana dominated the batting for Meghalaya, making 85 and 50 respectively in a total of 258/7. 

Manipur had won the toss and opted to field, making this the third time in succession that Meghalaya batted first. 

Two early wickets were lost in the first six overs before Khurana and Ram Gurung (36) made 86 for the third wicket. 

Gurung was the first to go, followed by Khurana, who has now made a fifty and two centuries in Meghalaya first three games of the one day tournament, but Bisht took up the reins of responsibility to carve out a fine 85 from 71 deliveries in an innings that included 11 hits to the boundary. 

The captain was dismissed off the first ball of the 46th over but Meghalaya were still able to add a further 46 runs by the 50th, thanks to the run-a-ball unbeaten 28 of Ravi Teja and Dippu Sangma’s 11 not out. 

The second innings was a celebration of bowling by Meghalaya. Siddique made a dream debut, taking his first wicket in the very first over, while Dippu (1/14) claimed his only wicket of the day also in his first over. 

Siddique then followed with another three before Johnson (34) was caught and bowled by Teja (1/27). Siddique then got his fifth by dismissing Manipur’s lead scorer Kishan for 50, before adding another to finish with figures of 6/39 in his full complement of 10 overs. 

Altogether Meghalaya used nine bowlers, with the others among the wickets being Aryan Bora (1/25) and Lerry Sangma, who came on to bowl the last over of the match – he gave away one run off the first ball before dismissing the Number 11 off the second, thereby sealing Meghalaya’s massive victory. 

Meghalaya, currently second in the Plate Group, will be back in action tomorrow against third-placed Mizoram.