Shakti Gauchan’s allround performance put defending champion Bhairahawa on top of the table with three wins in as many matches at Institute of Engineering Ground.
Antim Thapa and Shakti Gauchan scored half-centuries as Bhairahawa raced to 215 in 46 overs. He then turned his left-arm spinners to return with match figures of 2/5 to bowl out Nepalgunj for 50 and record a 165-run win.
Nepalgunj’s Meeraj Ansari was the man who saved his team from further embarrassment. He bowled at disciplined pace to take four wickets to restrict Bhairahawa to a meager total and topscored with 12 — including a six of the last scoring shot — to put his team beyond the earlier lowest total.
For Bhairahawa, Sagar Khadka (26), Akash Gupta (19) and Manoj Vaishya (18) contributed a few runs apart from Shakti and Antim, who got 52 off 68 balls. Nirmal KC and Sandeep Shrestha picked two wickets each for the losers.
In Nepalgunj’s innings, no one except Meeraj, reached double-figure while Faizal Khan also took two wickets for Bhairahawa.
| Round | League |
| Toss won by | Bhairahawa |
| Umpires | Durga Nath Subedi & Sirish Upadhyay |
| Scorers | Dhiraj Gyawali |
| Player / Match | RN4:Gauchan, Shakti |
| Points Awarded | Bhairahawa 3, Nepalgunj 0 |
| Bhairahawa Innings 215 All Out (Overs 46) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| B Regmi | c N KC | b M Ansari | 9 | 13 | 1 | 0 |
| M Vhaishya+ | c M Chettri | b N KC | 13 | 21 | 1 | 0 |
| Amit Shrestha | c M Chettri | b M Ansari | 6 | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| A Thapa | b N Shahi | 52 | 68 | 7 | 0 | |
| S Gauchan* | b M Ansari | 50 | 73 | 3 | 0 | |
| S Khadka | c S Shrestha | b S Sunar | 26 | 44 | 3 | 0 |
| A Gupta | c N Shahi | b N KC | 19 | 17 | 3 | 0 |
| Bijaya Thapa | lbw | b M Ansari | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| R BK | not out | 3 | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| A Bhattarai | lbw | b S Shrestha | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| F Khan | lbw | b S Shrestha | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| extras | (b9 lb9 w11 nb1) | 30 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 215 |
| FOW1-22(B Regmi) 2-40(Amit Shrestha) 3-46(M Vhaishya) 4-104(A Thapa) 5-169(S Khadka)6-188(S Gauchan) 7-190(Bijaya Thapa) 8-204(A Gupta) 9-214(A Bhattarai)10-215(F Khan) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| S Sunar | 10 | 0 | 52 | 1 | 2 | – |
| M Ansari | 10 | 0 | 49 | 4 | 6 | – |
| N KC | 9 | 2 | 26 | 2 | 1 | – |
| S Shrestha | 8 | 0 | 30 | 2 | 1 | – |
| N Shahi | 9 | 0 | 40 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Nepalgunj Innings 50 All Out (Overs 26.2) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| M Chettri*+ | b A Bhattarai | 6 | 13 | 1 | 0 | |
| R Silpakar | c M Vhaishya | b S Gauchan | 7 | 43 | 0 | 0 |
| A Singh | c Bijaya Thapa | b F Khan | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| S Hussain | c Amit Shrestha | b F Khan | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| TB Shahi | b Bijaya Thapa | 1 | 26 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Giri | run out A Thapa | 4 | 15 | 1 | 0 | |
| S Shrestha | run out A Thapa | 6 | 18 | 1 | 0 | |
| N KC | st M Vhaishya | b R BK | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| N Shahi | lbw | b S Gauchan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| M Ansari | not out | 12 | 14 | 1 | 1 | |
| S Sunar | c S Gauchan | b B Regmi | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| extras | (b0 lb3 w10 nb0) | 13 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 50 |
| FOW1-11(M Chettri) 2-15(A Singh) 3-20(S Hussain) 4-26(TB Shahi) 5-26(R Silpakar)6-36(S Giri) 7-38(S Shrestha) 8-38(N Shahi) 9-43(N KC) 10-50(S Sunar) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| A Bhattarai | 6 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 3 | – |
| F Khan | 6 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 7 | – |
| Bijaya Thapa | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | – | – |
| S Gauchan | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | – | – |
| S Khadka | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | – | – |
| B Regmi | 2.2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | – | – |
| R BK | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | – | – |