Region No 4 Bhairahawa won their maiden national championship defeating Region No 3 Kathmandu by 94 runs in the final of the Shikhar Senior One-Day National Cricket Tournament at the TU Cricket Ground on Saturday.
Bhairahawa scored 212/8 in 50 overs – thanks to player of the final Dipesh Khatri’s half-century and bowled out Kathmandu’s star-studded batting lineup for 118 runs in 40 overs to lift the trophy.
Dipesh and Manoj Vhaishya gave a steady start to the Bhairahawa after Shakti Gauchan won the toss and elected to bat first. They added 77 runs – the best partnership for any wicket in this year’s event in 26.4 overs before Manoj was finally bowled by Paras. Manoj scored 28 off 70 balls with two fours.
Basant Regmi failed to stay long but Dipesh stayed long enough to score the only second half-century of the event. He got 50 in 108 balls with five boundaries and was stumped off Raju Basnet.
It was the opening partnership that provided the foundation for the middle-order to open their arms. Shakti began with a six off Raju and went on to score 32 of 38 balls while hard-hitting Akash Gupta got 31 off 27 balls with two fours and a six off Raju.
Antim Thapa (12), Sagar Khadka (16) and Vijay Thapa (16*) gathered a few runs towards the end of the innings to help their team accumulate a good total of 212. Paras Khadka spearheaded the bowling taking three wickets for 26 runs in 10 overs while Amir Akhtar and Raju Basnet each took two.
Kathmandu too tried the same strategy of saving wickets early on but failed to execute efficiently as spinners made scoring difficult. Amrit Bhattarai found the edge of Dipen Shrestha in the sixth over to give Bhairahawa a breakthrough but Sharad Vesawkar, who was dropped off easy chance at 10, and Paresh Lohani played patiently.
Sharad was bowled out after scoring 19 on Basant’s first over while captain Paresh saw his star batting lineup collapsing from one end as Gyanendra Malla, Dipendra Chaudhary and Paras Khadka failed to stay long. Only Paras (19) made some contribution.
Paresh was himself out of touch having missed a few big swings and lofted a shot to long on off Basant for an easy catch to Akash. Returning at 78/6 in 27.2 overs, he knew his team had not much chance against the three-time runners-up.
Amir (10), Abhaya Rana (10) and Raj Shrestha (9) tried some shots finally before Raj was caught brilliantly by Basant at short fine leg on the last ball of 40th over to end Kathmandu innings at 118. Vijay Thapa got three wickets while young Rahul BK and Basant each got two.
Prizes & Awards
Champion: Bhairahawa – Rs. 75,000
Runners-up: Kathmandu – Rs. 40,000
Man of the Series: Paras Khadka – Rs. 15,000
Best Batsman: Sunil Bista – Rs 10,000
Best Bowler: Mehboob Alam – Rs 10,000
| Kathmandu Vs Bhairahawa |
| Played At Tribhuvan University Ground, Kirtipur, 23-Jun-2007, Shikhar Senior One-Day National |
| Bhairahawa Win by 94 runs |
| Round | Final |
| Toss won by | Bhairahawa |
| Umpires | BB Pradhan & M Adhikari |
| Scorers | D Gyawali & R Siwakoti |
| Awards | Man of the Match: Dipesh Khatri Man of the Series: Paras Khadka Best Batsman: Sunil Bista Best Bowler: Mehboob Alam |
| Result | Bhairahawa become Champions! |
| Bhairahawa 212/8 (Overs 50) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| D Khatri | st D Shrestha | b R Basnet | 50 | 108 | 5 | 0 |
| M Vhaishya+ | b P Khadka | 28 | 70 | 2 | 0 | |
| B Regmi | c D Shrestha | b A Akhtar | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| S Gauchan* | c BB Shah | b S Veshwakar | 32 | 38 | 2 | 1 |
| A Gupta | c&b R Basnet | 31 | 27 | 2 | 1 | |
| A Thapa | b P Khadka | 12 | 13 | 1 | 0 | |
| S Khadka | c G Malla | b P Khadka | 16 | 16 | 1 | 0 |
| R BK | c&b A Akhtar | 9 | 7 | 0 | 1 | |
| Bijaya Thapa | not out | 16 | 12 | 0 | 1 | |
| A Bhattarai | not out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b2 lb5 w9 nb1) | 17 | ||||
| TOTAL | 8 wickets for | 212 |
| FOW1-77(M Vhaishya) 2-80(B Regmi) 3-102(D Khatri) 4-151(A Gupta) 5-160(S Gauchan)6-174(A Thapa) 7-186(R BK) 8-210(S Khadka) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| A Rana | 8 | 0 | 33 | 0 |
| A Akhtar | 9 | 1 | 42 | 2 |
| P Khadka | 10 | 3 | 26 | 3 |
| R Shrestha | 6 | 1 | 23 | 0 |
| BB Shah | 4 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| R Basnet | 10 | 0 | 52 | 2 |
| S Veshwakar | 3 | 0 | 15 | 1 |
| Kathmandu 118 All Out (Overs 40) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| P Lohani* | c A Gupta | b B Regmi | 19 | 71 | 2 | 0 |
| D Shrestha+ | c R BK | b A Bhattarai | 5 | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| S Veshwakar | b B Regmi | 22 | 33 | 2 | 0 | |
| G Malla | st M Vhaishya | b Bijaya Thapa | 5 | 13 | 1 | 0 |
| D Chaudhary | c B Regmi | b Bijaya Thapa | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| P Khadka | b R BK | 19 | 18 | 1 | 2 | |
| A Akhtar | run out D Khatri | 13 | 22 | 1 | 0 | |
| BB Shah | st M Vhaishya | b R BK | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| A Rana | c D Khatri | b S Gauchan | 10 | 28 | 0 | 0 |
| R Basnet | not out | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| R Shrestha | c B Regmi | b Bijaya Thapa | 9 | 18 | 1 | 0 |
| extras | (b0 lb2 w2 nb4) | 8 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 118 | ||||
| FOW1-10(D Shrestha) 2-40(S Veshwakar) 3-51(G Malla) 4-53(D Chaudhary) 5-78(P Khadka)6-78(P Lohani) 7-80(BB Shah) 8-103(A Akhtar) 9-103(A Rana) 10-118(R Shrestha) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| D Khatri | 7 | 2 | 17 | 0 |
| A Bhattarai | 6 | 0 | 20 | 1 |
| B Regmi | 6 | 0 | 25 | 2 |
| S Gauchan | 8 | 1 | 12 | 1 |
| Bijaya Thapa | 6 | 0 | 23 | 3 |
| R BK | 5 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
| S Khadka | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 |