Paras Guides Kathmandu to Final

Region No 3 Kathmandu entered the final of the Shikhar Senior One-Day National Cricket Tournament defeating defending champion Region No 2 Birgunj by 69 runs at the TU Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

Vice-captain Paras Khadka won the second consecutive man-of-the-match award scoring 44 runs to help Kathmandu reach 202/9 in 50 overs. Raj Shrestha and Aamir Akhtar then took three wickets each to bowl out Birgunj for 133 in 38.3 overs.

Birgunj captain Binod Das chose to field first and he himself justified his decision taking three wickets to bring down the host to a precarious position of 25/3 in 10.1 overs.

But thereafter, Kathmandu dominated the match reaching a good total with contributions from middle and lower order batsmen.

Sharad Vesawkar got 35 off 75 deliveries adding 37 runs with Dipendra Chaudhary (20) and 36 with Paras. Paras, who also won the man-of-the-match award in the lost match against Bhairahawa in the league, hit 44 off 54 deliveries with five fours and a six.

Birendra Bikram Shah (26 off 35 balls), Abhaya Rana (22 off 35 balls) and Aamir (13 off 10) did some late hitting to help Kathmandu get past the 200-mark.

Binod added one more to return with a four-wicket haul while Kumar Prasun took two.

In reply, Birgunj was on track with three top order batsmen getting runs but the others failed to work on the solid foundation.

After losing Anil Mandal early, Pratap Maharjan (24), Sanjay Bomjam (28) and Bikash Dali, who was out as the ninth wicket scoring 34 off 72

balls, tried to anchor the innings but beside Sanjam Regmi 16), none of the other batsmen stayed long to score the needed runs.

Apart from Raj and Aamir, Raju Basnet took two wickets while Paras took one.

On Thursday, Region No 1 Biratnagar plays Region No 4 Bhairahawa for the other spot in Saturday’s final.