Meghalaya's resistance to Tripura's ace bowling came to an end just before lunch despite a notable half-century from Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva as Tripura defeated Meghalaya by an innings and 17 runs at the MCA Ground in Polo here on Monday.
Resuming play on the last day on 3/0, Meghalaya lost three wickets without the addition of a run as Tripura bowlers looked hungry for victory. To recap, Tripura had declared their first innings on 377/8 and then bowled Meghalaya out for 222 before enforcing the follow-on. They then dismissed the hosts for 138 on Monday.
MB Mura Singh claimed 5/44, which, with his first innings haul of 6/52, gave him match figures of 11/96. Add that to his innings of 60 with the bat and it was easy to see why he was adjudged Player of the Match.Mura struck off just the third ball of the day as he accounted for the first of the three Meghalaya guest professionals, Anirudh B, for 1.
The other two quickly followed as well, with first innings hero Ajay Duhan out for a duck (he made 93 not out in the first innings) to Mura and Sumit Kumar out for 4 to AK Sarkar.
With Bamanbha Shangpliang's dismissal for 2, Meghalaya was reeling at 7/4 before Kishan Lyngdoh and Jaskirat came together at the crease. Like he did in the first innings, Kishan dealt mostly in boundaries, hitting 30 from 31 with seven fours. However, like Sunday, he was unable to press on for a big score.
Dippu, who has a first-class century to his name, also prolonged the innings with an entertaining 29, adding 44 for the eighth wicket with Jaskirat. The latter played aggressive but good cricket shots, especially enjoying himself against the spin to reach his fourth Ranji fifty, which he accomplished with eight boundaries. Last season he struck two half-centuries against Hyderabad, demonstrating that he is not afraid to take on the big teams.
Jaskirat's knock ended caught behind to Mura and the responsibility of shouldering the innings fell to Dippu. The team was almost able to make the visitors bat again but Dippu, the last man out, was dismissed off a short delivery to become Mura's fifth victim of the day.Meghalaya will now travel to Aurangabad where they will face Maharashtra from October 26.(UNI)
