Kicking off their campaign with a mammoth innings and 221-run win against Arunachal Pradesh in Ranji Trophy Plate Group, Bihar's journey in the premier domestic tournament has gone from best to worst. They drew the second game against Manipur to take three points next but in the last match, they went down to group leaders Meghalaya by four wickets.
Sitting on third spot of the six-team group table with 10 points, Bihar will surely want to turn around their fortunes when they host Sikkim in their fourth and penultimate round fixture at Urja Stadium in Patna starting on Tuesday. However, second on table Sikkim would be a tough nut to crack as they are coming into the match on the back of a four-wicket win over Mizoram. Sikkim started off with a win against Manipur followed by a 10-wicket loss to Meghalaya, who have won all three games so far. Sikkim have 12 points from three ties.
In their last game in Shillong, Bihar lost the low-scoring match inside three days even after taking a 97-run lead in the first innings as their batters capitulated in the second innings to score only 99. Four batters scored ducks while two scored only one each in that innings as Bihar batting crashed like a house of cards.
Even after that Bihar had 200 runs to defend on a wicket which was never batting friendly but except medium pacer Abhijeet Saket none could trouble the hosts as Meghalaya reached home with four wickets to spare in the last session of Day 3.
So, Bihar will have to up their performance in all departments of the game to put Sikkim under pressure and come out winners in the match. Sikkim, on the other hand, will like to remain in contention for the only knockout berth available from the group with another fine show.
