Mehboob Alam and Manjeet Shrestha bowled a splendid spell together with a new ball to help their team, defending champion Region No 1 Biratnagar, make merry against Region No 6 Baitadi for an emphatic nine-wicket victory in the Birendra Memorial National League cricket tournament here at the TU Cricket Ground.
Man of the match Mehboob, in his comeback effort to the national team, took four wickets giving away only 16 runs in his 8 overs while Manjeet took three to reduce Baitadi to 23/7. Left-arm orthodox Lakpa Lama took two more while leggie Raj Kumar Pradhan claimed one to end the Baitadi innings at 81 in 34.1 overs. Biratnagar raced to the victory in 14 overs.
Mehboob though couldn’t shine much with bat and went off after scoring 14 runs off 18 deliveries with two boundaries. Rajendra Chand claiming his wicket caught by Sameer Chand. He added 34 with fellow opener Yashwant Subedi, who played some pretty shots for his unbeaten 33 scored off 38 balls with six fours. Captain Dipendra Chaudhary, also bidding for national team return, remained unbeaten on 25 off 28 balls. He hit four boundaries.
Earlier, it was Dipendra’s decision to bowl first that paid off. Mehboob started with wicket in the third ball of the innings castling Deepak Budal’s stumps. Manjeet did even better taking wicket on his first ball. Shambu Shah, on his debut, edged the first ball he faced to wicket-keeper Manoj Katuwal.
Mehboob’s luck with third ball continued when he caught Dhan Bahadur Chettri and Arjun Rawal before the stumps on third and fifth over reducing Baitadi to 7/4. Manjeet and Manoj combination got another wicket on eighth over – this time of captain Dhirendra Chand, who was unbeaten on last two matches. Manjeet struck again in tenth over removing Prem Chaudhary who gave a catch to Unil Shrestha.
Next over, when Mehboob successfully appealed for leg-before against Suraj Bhandari, Baitadi were at a danger of scoring the lowest ever total of the tournament. But No 9 Rajendra Chand had different thoughts.
Rajendra scored 30 off 65 balls with two fours and a six adding 39 with Manoj Joshi, 13 off 42 and ensuring they pass the tournament’s lowest ever total – 46 by Nepalgunj. Lakpa Lama took wickets of both of them while second wicketkeeper Anish Aryal stumped Sameer Chand (5) off Raj Kumar Pradhan to end the innings.
It was also the tenth win for the captain Dipendra Chaudhary, who had led the team to all three tournament titles.