Region No 4 Bhairahawa was left ruing a run-out as Sharad Vesawkar helped Region No 3 Kathmandu win the Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament at the TU Cricket Ground on Saturday.
Two-time defending champion Bhairahawa, after a bad start, was on track to defend the title with Akash Gupta going good at 28 when he set off for a quick single. He reached the other end where No 8 Govinda Karki stood still not even interested in sacrificing his wicket for the in-form batsman as Sharad hits the stumps.
It all happened off the first ball of the 20th over when Bhairahawa was 79/6 chasing Kathmandu’s 110 in rain-reduced 26-overs per side match. Bhairahawa had lost Govinda Pradhan and Faizal Khan, both of whom did not score, in the second over bowled by Paras Khadka.
Antim Thapa (16) and Subash Pradhan (8) added 27 before both fell in Rom Shrestha’s first over making it 33/4 in 10 overs. Sagar Khadka and Akash revived the visitors’ hopes adding 41 runs in 45 balls.
Sagar was deceived by a slower delivery by Paras after scoring 11. In the next ball, Rahul BK was run out by Gyanendra Malla as Bhairahawa went down to 72/6. Akash looked in good touch hitting two sixes off Raj Shrestha and a four before the misfortune hit.
Lal Bahadur Adhikari (8) and Amrit Bhattarai (5) tried to reach the target but rejuvenated Kathmandu bowled them 16 runs short. Paras claimed four wickets for nine runs while Rom and Sharad each took two.
Earlier, Kathmandu won the toss and elected to bat first. It lost both the openers for 14 runs before Sharad anchored the innings with a half-century. Sharad hit four boundaries and a six for his 52 runs off 49 balls before he was brilliantly caught by Rahul off his own bowling.
The champions!
Paras got 20 while all other batsmen failed to get to double-digit. Bal Bahadur took three including two early wickets while Rahul and Sagar took two each. Three Kathmandu batsmen ran themselves out trying to accelerate run-rate.
Brief Score: Kathmandu 110 in 22.4 overs (S Vesawkar 52, P Khadka 20, ) beat Bhairahawa 94 all out in 25 overs (A Gupta 28, P Khadka 4wkt) by 16 runs.
Awards:
Champions – Region No 3 Kathmandu (Rs. 25,000)
Man of the Final – Sharad Vesawkar (Rs. 5,000)
Man of the Series – Sharad Vesawkar (Rs. 15,000)
Best Batsman – Antim Thapa (Rs. 10,000)
Best Bowler – Santosh Baral (Rs. 10,000)