“Nilesh – The First Centurion From Sikkim In List-A Cricket”

Nilesh Lamichaney, the captain of Sikkim Cricket Team becomes the first cricketer from Sikkim to score a century in List A crickettoday in Vijay Hazare Trophy, Round 3, plate division match, against Arunachal Pradesh in Vadodara, Gujarat. He scored 123 of 145 balls, including 2 sixes and 11 fours and had a vital opening partnership of 99 runs with Faizan Khan who scored 47 runs. He is also the only and first player from Sikkim who has scored centuries in all the categories he has represented Sikkim in (against Bengal 101 runs playing for the U15 team, 111 runs against Kerala playing for the U17 team, 124 runs and 147 runs against Manipur and Nagaland respectively, playing for the U19 team).

Sikkim is the only team in the tournament playing with all local players have made a good comeback in the second match after losing the first match a day before. Thou Sikkim lost both the matches, but have really made a good impact to the opponent and gave a tough fight in the match.

We have faith in the team and after the last match overall performance, we believe we can come back even stronger. We need to work hard and learn from the past two games for what improvements we need further. It is a team game and I would be happier, have my century helped the team to victory, says Nilesh.

Lobzang G. Tenzing, President of SCA congratulates Nilesh for playing a captain’s knock and being the first player from Sikkim to score a century in the senior level tournament of BCCI. A special mention must be made about the highest score in the first match by Lee Yong Lepcha and a quick 22 in the last match that shows his true courage and character. Faizan’s score of 47 gave a good start and so did Amos Rai’s excellent bowling average help the team compete well.  I’m proud of our local players for putting up a good show despite the lack of fund, match practice and proper infrastructure in Sikkim and wish them luck for the remaining matches.