Though after 31st December of every year, new year begins the next day, the last day of the year 2018 ended with a run riot by Aryan Bangar and Arbazz Uddin, New Year 2019 started with no less banging noise by Puducherry batsmen in the Cooch Behar Trophy being played at Palmyra Cricket Ground, Puducherry.
On the second day, the No.8 batsman Logesh not out on 1 overnight, went into bat with only the No.11 batsman Nithishkumar to give company to him, followed the footsteps of his top order batsman to go on and scored an elegant century to remain not out on 104 off 137 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes, while the end of the tail Nithishkumar scored 54 off 88 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes as the partnership of 151 for the last wicket took Puducherry to 500 for 9 off 119.5 overs when the innings was declared. For Arunachal Pradesh, Sashank Verma returned with figures of 5 for 168 and Govind Mittal 2 for 99.
Run riot followed by wickets riot
After the run riot in the first innings, the same duo Arbazz Uddin and Aryan Bangar went on wicket taking spree. Among the top 5 batsmen of Arunachal Pradesh, only Md Bilal stood firm as the others were dismissed cheaply and were 4 for 30 at one stage. Then there was a century partnership between Md Bilal and Govind Mittal. When the score was 130 the 5th wicket Govind Mittal was out for 39 off 72 balls with 8 fours. Md Bilal scored 85 off 125 balls with 11 fours and 3 sixes could only watch haplessly the fall of wickets at the other end and eventually Arunachal Pradesh was all out for 165 off 49.5 overs in the first innings. Arbazz Uddin returned with a rich haul of 7 for 73 off 20.5 overs and Aryan Bangar took 3 for 46 off 21 overs.
Asked to follow on with a first innings deficit of 335, Arunachal Pradesh started their second innings also badly to end the second day at 28 for 2 off 12 overs, with Puducherry sitting pretty to snatch an innings victory on the third day of the match.
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