Shillong, Sep 28: A fine century by Josiah Momin and five wickets for Manish Sharma led Meghalaya to victory by a massive 133 runs on the opening day of the Vinoo Mankad Trophy (one day tournament for U-19 boys) against Arunachal Pradesh in the Plate Group.
Arunachal won the toss in Ranchi and elected to field first, a decision that looked like the right one when they were able to dismiss Meghalaya’s two openers for just 24 on the scoreboard.
However, Momin had the innings of his young life as he struck 109 (off 111 deliveries), which was just over half of the team’s total of 217. Captain Kevin Christopher (40 off 77 deliveries) gave Momin good company in their 121-run third wicket partnership.
Momin paced his knock perfectly, first stabilising the Meghalaya innings before upping the scoring rate as the end approached. He had reached 50 in 72 balls before hitting his next 50 in just 35. All in all, he struck 14 fours and two sixes in a wonderful start to the season.
Momin finally fell in the 43rd over and his team mates added a further 30 runs (PM Santosh contributing 16) before being bowled out for 217 off the very last delivery.
Arunachal started the chase fairly well, not losing a wicket until the 15th over but always behind on the required run rate.
Sharma claimed both opening batters and added three more scalps in the middle and lower orders to finish with figures of 5/24 in his maximum of 10 overs.
All the other four bowlers used by Meghalaya also had success with the ball, with Gavineal Marpna claiming 2/16, while Waldo A Sangma, Santosh and Bharat Gurung all ended with 1/14 as Arunachal were bowled out for just 84.
Meghalaya’s next match will be against Nagaland tomorrow.
