Shillong, Jan 24: Tapas Kumar Das took six wickets as Odisha dismissed Meghalaya for 198 on the first day of their Ranji Trophy 2024-25 Elite Group A match at the MCA Ground here on Thursday.
At stumps, the visitors, who won the toss and elected to field first, had reached 70 without loss, meaning that they trail by 128 with all 10 wickets in hand.
Conditions would have perhaps favoured bowling a little in the morning but several of Meghalaya’s players got out after making good starts. Bamanbha Shangpliang (14 from 23 deliveries) struck two back-to-back glorious fours through the off side but then fended at a short one the next ball and that saw him caught behind square.
Nishanta Chakraborty was given a reprieve early on after he was put down by an Odisha fielder but did not punish the opposition for that mistake enough; he was out for 27 from 72 balls. Two guest professionals – Ajay Duhan and Anirudh B – also got into double figures before being dismissed for 15 and 12, respectively.
At this stage the hosts were in a spot of bother at 76/5 but Meghalaya’s third guest professional Sumit Kumar (40 from 54) and Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva (43 from 61) came together to put on 65 in a sixth wicket partnership that lasted 79 deliveries.
The right-hand, left-hand pairing gave Odisha some trouble and they punished bad balls with seven fours each. Both, however, fell to the bowling of pace bowler Tapas, who has an unusual but effective action whereby he throws his arms behind his head just before delivering the ball.
This Ranji match also saw the return of a celebrated cricketer who has done much for Meghalaya over the years – Wanlambok Nongkhlaw. He played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament this season and returned to the first-class team after a gap of nearly three years. However, his innings was shorter than he would have liked as he was out for 15 in 29 balls to Tapas, who claimed 6/67 in 20 overs, his best figures at this level.
Meghalaya were dismissed for under 200 just after the third session began and Odisha’s openers Swastik Samal (44 not out from 60) and Shantanu Mishra (23 not out from 49) held out until the end of play, which gave the visitors an excellent first day overall.
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