Region No 3 Kathmandu continued their form as Region No 2 Birgunj and Region No 5 Nepalgunj faced second consecutive defeat in the second day of ongoing second Birendra Memorial National League Championship in Kathmandu.
It was one-sided affair for Kathmandu after it elected to bat at Tribhuvan University ground against weak Nepalgunj, which suffered a humiliating 199-run defeat on the first day. Kathmandu made 273 in their allotted 50 overs, thanks to the highest ever score of 80 in the championship from Sandeep Shrestha. Nepalgunj in reply could only manage 123 runs in 39.3 overs.
Sandeep scored the brilliant half century in 96 balls hitting 11 boundaries to surpass Raju Khadka’s 61, scored in the same ground last year. He scored quickly and when he was caught by Kailash Gurung off his own bowling the team score was 140.
Besides Sandeep, Bardan Chalise also scored a half century. Bardan’s 56 comes of 52 deliveries with six boundaries. Young Munik Shrestha also contributed well with steady 34, a score built in 75 balls with just a boundary.
The bowling of Nepalgunj was quite undisciplined, as they gave away 53 valuable runs as extras and bowled as many as 42 extra balls.
Rohit Sharm, although took only one wicket of Monik, bowled nicely to finish 1 for 27 off 8 overs while Kailash Gurung finished 1 for 28 off 7 overs. Arvind Karna and Arun Thapa took 2 wickets each.
Nepalgunj batting flattered once again as no one could really keep the scoreboard ticking except Arun (20) and Mahesh Chettri. (32).
Kathmandu bowled well with Pramod Basnet, Raju Basnet and Bardan claiming 2 wickets each while veteran Kalam Ali and Anil Amatya took one wicket each.
The game played at St. Xaviers School ground was game of bowlers. Defending champions Region No 1 Biratnagar elected to bat but were eventually all out for 121 runs in 39.4 overs. The top scorer for them was Ayush Shrestha who made 22 of 32 deliveries with three fours and a six batting at number 10. A fine contribution for Biratnagar comes from Unil Shrestha (17) and Mehboob Alam (14) and Manoj Katuwal (14).
National vice captain Binod Das bowled brilliantly and took 3 wickets for 31 runs off his 8 overs, while Jay Prakash Sarraf took 2 wickets. Rajiv Shrestha, Shyam Thapa, Sanjam Regmi and captain Pawan Agrawal all took one wickets giving away only few runs.
But Birgunj could not capitalise the situation as it suffered were bowled out 11 runs behind in 29.2 overs. Few of the umpire’s decision did went wrong for them with good going Musharaf Izhar and Sanjam being at the other end when umpire Ganesh B Shrestha, possibly mistaken, raised a finger.
But bowling of Mehboob Alam, man of the match, should be praised who took two wickets in innings’ first over to wreck Birgunj’s morale. Mehboob bowled a 10-over long spell to take two more wickets giving away mere 22 runs.
For Birgunj, the big score comes from Jay Prakash (21) and number 10 Rajiv Shrestha (17) along with Sanjam (16), Pawan and Binod (15 each). Beside Mehboob, Manjeet Shrestha and Paras Luniya took 2 wickets each.