In a nail-biting finish of a low scoring match, Region No 2 Birgunj defeated Region No 1 Biratnagar by two wickets scoring the winning run in the last ball of the match at the Birgunj Cricket Ground.
Captain Binod Das bowled superbly to set a target of 87 runs in 31 overs for the hosts which they achieved in the last ball of the match losing eight wickets in difficult batting conditions.
After scoring 153 runs in the first innings and bowling out Birgunj for 121 runs, Biratnagar looked like heading for a victory. But Binod had other things in his mind and claimed six wickets to bowl out the visitors for 54 in 26.5 overs. He gave away only 12 runs in his 10 overs.
Only Kumar Bugel (16*), Kushal Tuladhar (14) and Ajay Rajbanshi (11) reached double figure while Mehboob Alam, Sunil Bista, Gopal Mandal and Manjeet Shrestha failed to score. Apart from Binod, Sanjam Regmi and Raj Mohammad each took two wickets.
It was Bikash Dali who set the platform for the win with 40 runs off 76 balls. He was the one who stayed at the crease seeing his teammates come and go. From 21/0, Birgunj went down to 36/4 with left-arm spinner Lakpa Lama claiming three wickets for 12 runs in his 6 overs.
Bikash and Sanjam added valuable 41 runs for the fifth wicket before Sanjam was run out for 17. Bikash followed five runs later making it 82/6 and two more wickets fell giving some anxious moments to Birgunj players. In the last over bowled by Mehboob, Birgunj required five runs. Shyam Thapa (3*) hit the winning single off the last ball.
Sanjam was declared man-of-the-match for his match figures of 7/48 and valuable contribution of 16* and 17 runs with the bat.
Scorecard
| Birgunj Vs Biratnagar |
| 2-Day Match At Birgunj Cricket Ground, 03-04-Jun-2007 |
| Birgunj Win Outright by 2 wkts |
| Round | 2Day |
| Toss won by | Biratnagar |
| Umpires | M Adhikari & BL Karn |
| Player / Match | Regmi, Sanjam |
| Points Awarded | Biratnagar 13, Birgunj 27.5 |
| Biratnagar 1st Inns 153 All Out (49.5o) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| S Bista | b B Das | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| L Lama | c& | b R Mohammad | 9 | 31 | 1 | 0 |
| M Alam | b S Regmi | 31 | 63 | 3 | 0 | |
| Y Shrestha | b S Regmi | 40 | 80 | 6 | 0 | |
| G Mandal | lbw | b R Mohammad | 2 | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| A Rajbanshi | c R Mohammad | b Sushant Thapa | 31 | 50 | 3 | 0 |
| M Shrestha | c R Mohammad | b S Regmi | 2 | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| K Tuladhar | c Maharjan,P | b S Regmi | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| RK Pradhan* | st S Tandukar | b Sushant Thapa | 19 | 32 | 3 | 0 |
| K Bugel | lbw | b S Regmi | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| B Thapa | not out | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b4 lb7 w3 nb3) | 17 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 153 |
| FOW1-0(S Bista) 2-33(L Lama) 3-56(M Alam) 4-61(G Mandal) 5-116(A Rajbanshi)6-122(Y Shrestha) 7-122(K Tuladhar) 8-133(M Shrestha) 9-136(K Bugel)10-153(RK Pradhan) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| B Das | 13 | 1 | 39 | 1 | – | 1 |
| R Shrestha | 5 | 1 | 15 | 0 | – | – |
| R Mohammad | 8 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 1 | – |
| S Thapa | 6 | 1 | 18 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| S Regmi | 15 | 2 | 46 | 5 | – | – |
| Sushant Thapa | 2.5 | 0 | 11 | 2 | – | – |
| Birgunj 1st Inns 121 All Out (44o) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| Maharjan,P | c RK Pradhan | b K Tuladhar | 40 | 85 | 5 | 0 |
| P Sah | b M Alam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| B Dali | b M Alam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Wonjam | c M Shrestha | b L Lama | 10 | 23 | 1 | 0 |
| R Mohammad | lbw | b A Rajbanshi | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| B Das* | c B Thapa | b RK Pradhan | 10 | 28 | 0 | 0 |
| S Thapa | lbw | b B Thapa | 1 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| S Regmi | not out | 16 | 53 | 1 | 0 | |
| R Shrestha | c M Alam | b RK Pradhan | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| S Tandukar+ | c B Thapa | b L Lama | 15 | 32 | 2 | 0 |
| Sushant Thapa | c RK Pradhan | b M Alam | 2 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| extras | (b11 lb12 w3 nb0) | 26 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 121 |
| FOW1-1(P Sah) 2-1(B Dali) 3-38(S Wonjam) 4-39(R Mohammad) 5-58(B Das) 6-77(S Thapa)7-79(Maharjan,P) 8-106(R Shrestha) 9-116(S Tandukar) 10-121(Sushant Thapa) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| M Alam | 8 | 1 | 14 | 3 | 2 | – |
| M Shrestha | 3 | 0 | 11 | 0 | – | – |
| A Rajbanshi | 6 | 1 | 25 | 1 | – | – |
| L Lama | 10 | 5 | 19 | 2 | – | – |
| RK Pradhan | 11 | 2 | 14 | 2 | – | – |
| B Thapa | 3 | 1 | 10 | 1 | – | – |
| K Tuladhar | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | – |
| Biratnagar 2nd Inns 54 All Out (26.5o) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| S Bista | lbw | b B Das | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| L Lama | c B Dali | b B Das | 2 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| G Mandal | c S Tandukar | b B Das | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Y Shrestha | c P Sah | b R Mohammad | 9 | 29 | 1 | 0 |
| M Alam | c S Tandukar | b B Das | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| A Rajbanshi | lbw | b R Mohammad | 11 | 30 | 1 | 0 |
| RK Pradhan* | b B Das | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| K Tuladhar | c B Dali | b S Regmi | 14 | 22 | 2 | 0 |
| M Shrestha | lbw | b B Das | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K Bugel | not out | 16 | 30 | 1 | 0 | |
| B Thapa | c Maharjan,P | b S Regmi | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| extras | (b0 lb1 w0 nb0) | 1 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 54 |
| FOW1-2(S Bista) 2-2(G Mandal) 3-3(L Lama) 4-3(M Alam) 5-23(Y Shrestha)6-24(A Rajbanshi) 7-24(RK Pradhan) 8-24(M Shrestha) 9-24(K Tuladhar) 10-54(B Thapa) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| B Das | 10 | 6 | 12 | 6 | – | – |
| R Shrestha | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | – | – |
| R Mohammad | 5 | 0 | 24 | 2 | – | – |
| S Regmi | 3.5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | – | – |
| S Thapa | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | – | – |
| Sushant Thapa | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | – | – |
| Birgunj 2nd Inns 88/8 (31o) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| Maharjan,P | lbw | b M Shrestha | 12 | 32 | 1 | 0 |
| B Dali | run out L Lama | 40 | 76 | 5 | 0 | |
| P Sah | b L Lama | 1 | 13 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Wonjam | c sub | b L Lama | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| B Das* | b L Lama | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Regmi | run out S Bista | 17 | 38 | 1 | 0 | |
| R Shrestha | c S Bista | b M Shrestha | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| S Thapa | not out | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Tandukar+ | run out B Thapa | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| R Mohammad | not out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sushant Thapa | dnb | – | ||||
| extras | (b1 lb3 w2 nb0) | 6 | ||||
| TOTAL | 8 wickets for | 88 |
| FOW1-21(Maharjan,P) 2-31(P Sah) 3-31(S Wonjam) 4-36(B Das) 5-77(S Regmi) 6-82(B Dali)7-82(R Shrestha) 8-86(S Tandukar) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| M Alam | 10 | 1 | 32 | 0 | – | – |
| M Shrestha | 9 | 1 | 18 | 2 | 1 | – |
| L Lama | 6 | 3 | 12 | 3 | – | – |
| K Tuladhar | 3 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | – |
| RK Pradhan | 3 | 0 | 15 | 0 | – | – |