Vijay Hazare Trophy: Siddique grabs 6/39 in dream debut for Meghalaya

Jaipur: Seamer Nafees Siddique made a dream List A debut grabbing 6/39 to power Meghalaya to a mammoth 111-run win over Manipur in their Plate Group match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy national one-dayers here on Saturday.

Siddique bowled a fine new ball spell to rattle Manipur’s top-order and reduce the opponent to 28/5 inside nine overs in their chase of 259 as their decision to field first backfired.

L Kishan Singha showed some resistance with a 123-ball 50 as only three batters got to double digits before Manipur were bundled out for 147 in 49.2 overs.

Earlier, Meghalaya rode on half-centuries from skipper Punit Bisht (85 from 71 balls; 11x4s) and Chirag Khurana (50 from 80 balls; 2x4s) to post a challenging 258 for 7 at the Jaipuria Vidyalaya ground here.

This was Meghalaya’s third successive win but they remained second behind Tripura on net run-rate in the race to the knockouts from Plate Group.

At the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Bishal Ghosh struck an unbeaten 127 to steer Tripura to an easy eight-wicket win over Sikkim for their third win on the trot.

Chasing 232, Tripura lost opener Samrat Singh in the third over but there was no further damage as Ghosh along with Samit Gohel laid a strong foundation with a 164-run match-winning stand.

Ghosh slammed 14 boundaries in his 137-ball 127-run not out knock to take Tripura home with 23 balls to spare. Ghosh got a fine ally in Gohel who made a fighting 103-ball 73 with five fours.

Earlier, Amit Ali was the wrecker-in-chief for Tripura with his 4/50, while Manisankar Murasingh claimed 2/52 as they restricted Sikkim to a modest 231/8.

Opener Liyan Khan was the top-scorer for Sikkim with a 148-ball 120 (13x4s, 1×6) but he lacked support from the other end with regular strikes from Tripura.

Brief Scores:

Sikkim 231/8; 50 overs (Liyan Khan 120; Amit Ali 4/50) lost to Tripura 232/2; 46.1 overs (Bishal Ghosh 127 not out, Samit Gohel 73) by eight wickets.

Meghalaya 258/7; 50 overs (Punit Bisht 85, Chirag Khurana 50; Thomas Moirangthem 2/44, Somorjit Salam 2/65) beat Manipur 147; 49.2 overs (L Kishan Singha 50; Nafees Siddique 6/39) by 111 runs.

Bihar 280/8; 50 overs (Mangal Mahrour 94, Bipin Saurabh 79; Shrikant Mundhe 2/61) beat Nagaland 142; 31.4 overs (Shrikant Mundhe 74; Sarfaraz Ashraf 3/18, Shashi Shekhar 2/9, Ashutosh Aman 2/14) by 138 runs.

Arunachal Pradesh 218/7; 50 overs (Techi Neri 86, Akhilesh Sahani 46; Parvez Ahmed 3/39) lost to Mizoram 221/5; 47.5 overs (Taruwar Kohli 94; Techi Neri 2/45) by five wickets