Ranji Trophy: Sikkim, Uttarakhand secure successive wins

Deepak Dhapola returned with a match haul of 13 wickets as Uttarakhand secured their second straight victory in the Ranji Trophy Plate Group beating Manipur by eight wickets in Dehradun on Wednesday.

In Dimapur, Sikkim also registered their second win in their debut season beating hosts Nagaland by nine wickets.

Sikkim have 13 points along with Uttarakhand but the former occupy the pole position in the Plate Group on the basis of better net run-rate.

Dhapola, who ripped apart Manipur in the first innings with a 7/50, returned with 5/46 as he along with Sunny Rana, who bagged an identical 5/46.

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Manipur had four ducks in their innings and with the wicket of skipper Yashpal Singh for 15 taken by Sunny, Manipur slumped to 164/8, thus losing seven wickets for just 21 runs.

Manipur were eventually bowled out for 185 in the second essay, setting Uttarkhand a target of 95.

Uttarakhand lost opener Karanveer Kaushal (18), No 3 Vaibhav Bhatt (27) but Vineet Saxena remaining unbeaten on 32 to steer them home in 17.5 overs to help them bag six points.

Uttarakhand had beaten Bihar with a bonus point in their last match here with Dhapola claiming 6/13 and 3/48.

In Dimapur, Sikkim were set a paltry target 79 as skipper Nilesh Lamichaney remained unbeaten on 33 alongside Ashish Thapa (27 no) to win in 25.4 overs.

Former Delhi batsman Milind Kumar was their star player with second successive double century that gave them a 195-run first innings lead.

Nagaland put up a strong show in their second essay with KB Pawan’s 134 and Imliwati Lemtur’s 61 as they finished at 273 in their second innings.

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Brief Scores:

In Dehradun: Manipur 137 and 185; 74.4 overs (Lakhan Rawat 82; Deepak Dhapola 5/46, Sunny Rana 5/46) lost to Uttarakhand 228 and 99/2; 17.5 overs (Vineet Saxena 32 not out) by eight wickets. Points: Uttarakhand 6, Manipur 0.

In Dimapur: Nagaland 179 and 273; 95 overs (KB Pawan 134, Imliwati Lemtur 61; Ishwar Chaudhary 5/70, Bipul Sharma 3/67) lost to Sikkim 374 and 81/1; 25.4 overs (Nilesh Lamichaney 33 not out) by nine wickets. Points: Sikkim 6, Nagaland 0.

In Jorhat: Arunachal Pradesh 220 and 331; 96 overs (Neelam Obi 80, K Yangfo 58, Kshitiz Sharma 57; Khadir 3/81) vs Mizoram 142 and 244/2 (Akhil Rajput 124, Taruwar Kohli 85.

In Puducherry: Puducherry 389 and 95/4 (Marimuthu Viknesh 47; Gurinder Singh 4/29) vs Meghalaya 326 (Yogesh Nagar 141 not out, Puneet Bisht 58; Pankaj Singh 6/39).