Gangtok: Sikkim cricket team, hosting its very first Ranji match at home against Manipur, won convincingly by eight wickets.
Chasing a target of 160 runs from the final session of Day 3, Sikkim started Day 4 on Friday with 139 runs needed to win. Star batsman Nilesh Lamichaney top scored with 74 runs with opener Pankaj Rawat anchoring the chase with 72 runs at the other end.
Nilesh Lamichaney was declared the Man of the Match for his innings, becoming the first local player to win the prestigious award in the Ranji trophy for Sikkim. This was Sikkim’s eighth win in the Ranji tournament and their first without guest players in 24 first-class matches over the past 5 years.
Manipur opened the first innings but was bundled out for 186 on the first day on December 13. In response, Sikkim finished their first innings for 220 runs with Jotin Pheiroijam picking up nine wickets for 69 runs, making the 17-year-old one of the youngest debutants with 9 wickets.
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Commenting on the match, Sikkim Cricket Association (SICA) president Lobsang Tenzing shared, “We continuously had to negotiate, get the inputs of BCCI officials for the last few months to have certain facilities incorporated in the already existing infrastructure (Mining Ground). To ask the nearby hotels to upgrade rooms, and have gym facilities, it’s been a long process towards which we have working for the past year. We especially needed the mandatory PMO area or the changing room, for which we were trying to go at a breakneck speed. Still, we lost two matches for the other tournament which was hosted in Orissa.”
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