Shillong, Feb 2: Akash Kumar Choudhary took four wickets on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy plate group match between Meghalaya and Sikkim at the latter’s home ground of Rangpo.
The match started Meghalaya’s way but a middle-order fightback from the hosts saw them finish the first day on a respectable 238/7 in 78 overs.
Sikkim won the toss and chose to bat first but were reduced to 63/5 at one point before Palzor (79) and Saurav Kumar Prasad (36) made 77 for the sixth wicket. Ankur then took Prasad’s place when the latter was dismissed and he was on 58 not out at stumps, having made 65 for the seventh wicket with Palzor.
Among the Meghalaya bowlers, Akash removed two of the top-order batters and also claimed the coveted wickets of Palzor and Prasad to finish with figures of 4/46 in 23 overs. His fellow opening bowler Swarajeet Das bagged 2/38 in 13 overs while left-arm spinner Aryan Borah, drafted from the U-23 men’s team for this game, took 1/82 in 21 overs.
Meghalaya will aim to take the remaining three wickets as quickly as possible tomorrow morning and not let Sikkim add much to their overnight score.
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