Odisha, Jan 2
Sikkim’s Milind Kumar outstanding Century helped manage Sikkim draw the match against Meghalaya in Round 8 of a Plate Division, Ranji Trophy Match played at KIITS Cricket Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha today.
Milind Kumar scored 117 runs in the first innings and 127 not-out in second innings. With this Kumar secured his place in All-Time Top Five run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy Season. Kumar also beats Wasim Jaffer’s record of 1,260 runs in a season with a runs and placed himself in fifth position. VVS Laxman is leading with 1415 runs, Shreyas Iyer (1321), Priyank Panchal (1310), Vijay Bharadwaj (1280), Milind Kumar (1261). Milind is 154 runs short to break all the past records with one match to play before the Ranji Trophy Season ends for Sikkim.
So far Sikkim has played 7 matches and won three, one drawn and lost 3 matches with Milind scoring 261 against Manipur, 224 against Nagaland, 133 against Uttarakhand, 13 & 13 against Bihar, 96 & 77* against Puducherry, 139 against Mizoram and 117 & 127* against Meghalaya.
“I would like to thank Sikkim Cricket Association for giving me opportunity to represent the State in Ranji Trophy Season of 2018-19 and happy that I am able to deliver what they expected of me. My only target in each match is to be in the crease as long as I can, build a partnership and make maximum runs. I am happy to be in the top five of most runs in Ranji Trophy Season list.”- says Milind Kumar.
Decent batting from the players where Captain Nilesh Lamichaney 70 runs, Ashish Thapa (43), Milind Kumar (127*) and Karma Thinlay (14*). It was Milind and Karma who took the match to an end with Sikkim scoring 304/4 in the second innings where Meghalaya took an innings lead and shared the point Sikkim (1) and Meghalaya (3). With this Sikkim earns 20 Point(s) and is standing in 5th place of Plate Division Point(s) table, ahead of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland.
Sikkim will be playing its last match of Ranji Trophy Season 2018-19 on 7th January, 2018 at D N Singha Stadium, Goalpara, Assam.