Lal Bahadur Adhikari’s second man of the match helped Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) register a three-wicket win over Region No 6 (Baitadi) at TU Ground and confirm a place in semifinal of the Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament on Wednesday.
Region No 1 (Biratnagar) crashed out the event after a three-wicket defeat against Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) at BSAM Ground – a result that also confirmed semifinal berth for Nepalgunj and Region No 3 (Kathmandu).
Bhairahawa topped Group B with two wins while the runners-up will be the winner of Thursday’s match between Baitadi and Region No 2 (Birgunj). Kathmandu and Nepalgunj will vie for the top position of Group A on Thursday.
Baitadi won the toss and elected to bat first. They however could not materialize much after being bowled out in 30.1 overs for only 82 runs. Only Naresh Budayar (27 off 41 balls), Ashok Chand (14 off29) and Prashant Bista (13 off 27) reached double-figure.
Lal took three wickets giving away 14 runs in his eight overs while Amrit Bhattarai, Bal Bahadur Thapa and Rahul BK each took two wickets.
Bhairahawa’s innings too was not commendable as they lost seven wickets for the victory in 22nd over. Only opener Subash Pradhan (12 off 26) made some runs but they hugely utilized 21 wides for the victory.
Bhuwan Karki (3 for 15) was the pick of the bowler while Chandra Saud, Pradeep Airee and Naresh each took a wicket.
At BSAM, Biratnagar won the toss and elected to bat first. Despite losing Rajan Khadgi early, Sunny Pun batted very well for a worthy half-century. His 70 off 92 deliveries with eight fours was the highlight of the match.
Sunny and Somesh Yadav (28) partnered 78 runs for second wicket. Ravi Roy’s 35 off 55 and Anup Karki’s 16 took Biratnagar to a good total of 192/9 in 50 overs.
For Nepalgunj, Sunil Sunar took three wickets while Navin Shahi and Shahid Riza each grabbed two.
Nepalgunj too lost an opener soon but the second wicket partnership yielded 88 runs for them with Bidhan Giri and Shahid scoring easily. Man of the match Shahid, trapped leg before in 22nd over, made 61 off 57 balls with 12 fours to put Nepalgunj on top. Bidhan made 43 off 90.
Then it was Anupam Singh (38 off 61), Sandeep Shrestha (22 off 47) and Subendu Pandey (10 off 14) who took Nepalgunj to victory and semifinal.
Nepalgunj’s victory also shadowed a four-wicket haul of Nirjal Chhetri. He bowled well giving away only 28 runs in his 10 overs.