Ton-up Priyojit takes Manipur to 300/5 vs Bihar

Manipur’s Kangabam Priyojit Singh was on fire.
The right-hand batter notched up his second consecutive century in first-class cricket to guide Manipur to a commanding position of 300 for five wickets in 90 overs against Bihar in their second game of Ranji Trophy Plate Group in Nadiad on Saturday.
This is Priyojit’s highest score (134 batting) in red-ball cricket, bettering his maiden century (102) achieved against Sikkim in the last match, the opening round of Ranji Trophy this season.
Booming with confidence after opening their account with an innings win against Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar started the day on a high at Gokulbhai Somabhai Patel Stadium. Asked to bowl first, Amod Yadav gave Bihar an early breakthrough as the medium pacer induced an edge of Manipur opener Karnajit Yumnam with the second ball of the day.

However, other opener Ulenyai Khwairakpam (42 runs off 59 balls) and Ronald Longjam (41 off 90 balls) joined forces to take Manipur towards safety with a 67-run stand before the former was castled by Yadav and Longjam was run out next.
Then Johnson Singh (41 off 99 balls) did all the hard work but failed to convert that into a big score, falling to debutant off-spinner Sachin Kumar behind. Pheiroijam Jotin didn’t last long (5), holing out to Arnav Kishor off Kumar and Manipur were suddenly down to 189 for five.
Then Priyojit and Al Bashid Muhammed made sure they faced no further hiccup as Manipur ended the day without losing another wicket. The unbeaten sixth-wicket stand has already fetched 111 runs for Manipur, and they will hope to continue further on the second day from here.
Priyojit and Bashid played perfect foil to each other. While the former kept the Bihar fielders on leather hunt scoring 20 fours and a maximum in his 174-ball innings so far, the latter built his innings patiently scoring four boundaries in 108-ball stay in the middle.
For Bihar, Yadav and Kumar took two wickets apiece and they will hope to finish Manipur’s first innings as soon as possible on the morning of the second day.

Brief scores: Manipur 300 for 5 in 90 overs (K Priyojit 134 batting, U Khwairakpam 42; Amod 2/36, Sachin 2/46) vs Bihar. Match to continue.