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| Bipul Sharma, Ishwar Chaudhary, and Milind Kumar signing contracts with the Sikkim Cricket Association |
When I first heard about Milind Kumar’s entry into the Sikkim Cricket team for the Ranji Trophy 2018 from Roshan Prasad, my good old friend who is now associated with the Sikkim Cricket Association, I was wondering why did not the Sikkim Cricket Association did not rope in a popular face that could have motivated the entire team. But his performance in just six games for Sikkim has forced me to reconsider my decision about him.
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| MILIND KUMAR |
Milind Kumar, along with Bipul Sharma and Ishwar Chaudhary are the professional players drafted for the Sikkim team after its dismal show at the Vijay Hazare Tournament 2018 where Sikkim lost all eight matches. This year also marked Sikkim’s entry into the List A cricket tournament in India. Sikkim is among nine new state teams to participate in these tournaments. To add to the dismay, Sikkim lost its first match at Vijay Hazare Tournament by 10 wickets against Manipur and in the other match, the Himalayan team lost by 292 runs when they were bundled out for just 46 runs against Bihar. This proved to be the highest run of defeat for any team in the Indian Domestic Cricket.
The trio of Milind Kumar, Bipul Sharma and Ishwar Chaudhary have brought new luck for the Sikkim cricket team and in six Ranji matches the new state team have won three of their six matches with the trio being the biggest factor.
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| ISHWAR CHAUDHARY |
Lets list out the scores of Milind Kumar, 261 (against Manipur), 224 (against Nagaland), 133 & 61 (against Uttrakhand), 13 & 13 (against Bihar), 96 & 77* (against Pondichurry) and 139 (against Mizoram). The run-machine Milind Kumar had single-handedly chased down every Sikkim’s win. Not to forget his 14 valuable wickets with his best figure coming against Bihar, where he had 4 for 63.
In this new season of the Ranji Trophy, Milind Kumar becomes the first player to cross the magical four-figure of 1000 runs in his nine innings. Kumar becomes the second quickest to reach the landmark after Rusi Modi who had scored 1944 in 7 innings.
His total stats after six matches reads; 1017 runs with an average of 113 with four century and three half-centuries. Interestingly he had scored 1017 runs from the 1150 ball he had faced so far. The record seems to add, that his 39 fours against Manipur and 31 fours against Nagaland are the most fours of the inning. Milind gained a first and second position on the occasion. He is the highest century maker (4) in these first six matches stats. His highest score is 261 in Sikkim’s Ranji Trophy debut match against Manipur. He is the only batsman so far to have 100 boundaries; 141 fours and 14 sixes. Isn’t that brilliant!!
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| BIPUL SHARMA |
If Sikkim is doing good at this initial stage, let's not forget the bowling figures of Ishwar Chaudhary, another professional player to watch out for. Chaudhary has a total of 40 wickets from six matches. Seven wickets against Manipur, 6 wickets against Nagaland, 4 wickets against Uttarakhand, 7 wickets against Bihar and 11 wickets against Pondicherry. His wicket standing from six matches is third, only Gurinder Singh with 47 wickets from 7 matches and Dhapola with 42 wickets from 5 matches is ahead of him. He has five wicket haul in four instances. Chaudhary’s best figure is 6 for 78 against Bihar. Sharma also has three 50s with a total score of 391 for Sikkim.
Bipul Sharma, the third of the outside player trio of Sikkim has bagged 23 valuable wickets with his best figure of 4 for 55 against Manipur. With a bat, he has three 50s to his name at this first six match stats.
Sikkim has a busy season coming up and I am sure the trio’s record have a major influence on the young Sikkim Team. Best wishes guys !!
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