Paresh Lohani played yet another captain’s innings as Region No 3 Kathmandu set up the title clash in the Springwood National League Cricket Tournament with Region No 4 Bhairahawa defeating Region No 5 Nepalgunj by eight wickets at the TU Cricket Ground on Thursday.
Paras Khadka’s 3/14 restricted Nepalgunj to a lowly total of 109 in 46.1 overs before Paresh hit second half-century in a row as the hosts raced to victory in 29.2 overs losing just two wickets. At Lab School Ground, Region No 2 Birgunj beat Region No 6 Baitadi by three wickets.
Abhaya Rana took a wicket off his first ball to put Nepalgunj on the back foot straightaway and it could hardly score early on. When Nepalgunj lost second wicket off the last ball of the 12th over, it was 23/2 with a run-rate of less than two.
Anupam Singh (21) and Navin KC (11) provided some defiance against the bowling attack that gave away 22 extras to take the team past three digits. Paras bowled eight overs for his three scalps and Raju Basnet got 2/25. Sharad Vesawkar got the last two wickets in 13 balls to end the innings.
Kathmandu too did not start well losing Dipendra Chaudhary (4) in third over to Navin Shahi but the skipper shouldered the responsibility and carried on from Wednesday’s 79-run knock against Region No 1 Biratnagar to add 99 runs with Sharad Vesawkar and took Kathmandu two runs short of victory.
His 87-ball knock with 10 boundaries came to an end while trying to hit Ismail Ansari for a four to finish the game in style. Paras Khadka (2) and Sharad (16 in 72 balls) finished the match.
| Round | League |
| Toss won by | Nepalgunj |
| Umpires | Sirish Upadhyay & Prakash Pokharel |
| Scorers | Raman Siwakoti |
| Player / Match | RN3:Lohani, Paresh |
| Points Awarded | Nepalgunj 0, Kathmandu 3 |
| Nepalgunj Innings 109 All Out (Overs 46.1) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| M Chettri*+ | c&b P Basnet | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Hussain | c&b A Rana | 7 | 30 | 1 | 0 | |
| A Singh | c D Chaudhary | b P Khadka | 21 | 80 | 1 | 0 |
| Rupesh Sharma | c R Shrestha | b R Basnet | 10 | 35 | 2 | 0 |
| S Giri | b P Khadka | 4 | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Shrestha | not out | 13 | 53 | 1 | 0 | |
| N KC | b P Khadka | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| N Shahi | lbw | b R Shrestha | 11 | 12 | 2 | 0 |
| M Ansari | c P Khadka | b R Basnet | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| S Sunar | b S Veshwakar | 9 | 29 | 0 | 0 | |
| I Ansari | b S Veshwakar | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b7 lb2 w12 nb1) | 22 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 109 |
| FOW1-2(M Chettri) 2-23(S Hussain) 3-49(Rupesh Sharma) 4-56(S Giri) 5-61(A Singh)6-65(N KC) 7-79(N Shahi) 8-88(M Ansari) 9-105(S Sunar) 10-109(I Ansari) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| A Rana | 8 | 3 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| P Basnet | 8 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 2 | – |
| A Akhtar | 3 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 5 | – |
| P Khadka | 8 | 1 | 14 | 3 | 1 | – |
| R Basnet | 10 | 1 | 25 | 2 | 1 | – |
| R Shrestha | 7 | 1 | 22 | 1 | – | – |
| S Veshwakar | 2.1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | – | – |
| Kathmandu Innings 110/2 (Overs 29.2) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| P Lohani* | c Rupesh Sharma | b I Ansari | 68 | 87 | 10 | 0 |
| D Chaudhary+ | c M Chettri | b N Shahi | 4 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| S Veshwakar | not out | 16 | 72 | 1 | 0 | |
| P Khadka | not out | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b0 lb4 w16 nb0) | 20 | ||||
| TOTAL | 2 wickets for | 110 |
| FOW1-9(D Chaudhary) 2-108(P Lohani) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| N Shahi | 7 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 2 | – |
| M Ansari | 5 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 2 | – |
| N KC | 6 | 1 | 23 | 0 | 6 | – |
| S Sunar | 5 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 2 | – |
| I Ansari | 3.2 | 0 | 25 | 1 | 4 | – |
| S Shrestha | 3 | 1 | 6 | 0 | – | – |