The final of the Springwood National T20 Cricket Tournament exemplified the best of Twenty20 – the nail-biting finish and it was Region No 3 Kathmandu who held its nerves to defeat Region No 4 Bhairahawa by three runs in a splendid finish at the TU Ground.
Shakti Gauchan’s Bhairahawa came agonizingly close to the victory needing 10 runs off last two overs and three wickets remaining while chasing Kathmandu’s 94.
Kathmandu’s captain Paras Khadka bowled an over giving away five singles and getting a run-out wicket on the last ball. In the last over, Bhairahawa needed five runs with two wickets remaining.
Paras tossed the ball to Dipendra Chaudhary – a cool all-rounder – who justified the decision by bowling four dot balls – one of which resulted in run-out of Amrit Bhattarai – leaving the opponent needing four off last two balls.
On the fifth ball, Manoj Vhaishya hit to long-on and risked to run the second but Sunam Gautam was quick to return the ball to keeper Subash Khakurel who ran out the Manoj to end Bhairahawa’s dream.
Bhairahawa, with a good start, could have made it easier but there was no good start. Top three batsmen were back before the total reached double-digit – thanks to Abhaya Rana (2/21) and Paras (1/10).
From 9/3, Basant Regmi (15), Sagar Khadka (12) and Shakti Gauchan (18) steered the team near the target but failed to convert their beginning to match winning knock. Raju Basnet (2/22) and Rom did the trick for Kathmandu.
They were all back with scoreboard reading 60/6 and it all looked unlikely for them to chase the score. Akash Gupta, the hard-hitting youngster, put the hopes back. Akash hit two sixes and a four to gather 22 runs off 14 balls after being dropped off easy chance on zero.
His fall as Rom’s second wicket, caught by Dipendra, put the match back to Kathmandu’s grip and the nail-biting finish began. Rom finished with 2/19.
Earlier, Kathmandu too did not have a good batting day after Shakti sent them first. Paresh Lohani and Dipendra gave a solid start once again but Paresh was undone by Shakti’s low ball after scoring 22 off 15 balls with four hits to fences.
Dipendra continued for few more overs and saw Sunam (3), Paras (3) and Gyanendra Malla (13) come and go before becoming the third victim to Shakti. Dipendra scored 23 off 30 balls.
The failure of middle and lower order meant Katmandu finish on 94 all out in 19.3 overs. Shakti spearheaded the bowling with 4/14 from 3.3 overs while Basant, Rahul BK, Sagar and Amrit each grabbed a wicket.
Kathmandu pocketed Rs 75,000 as winners while Bhairahawa got Rs 40,000. Best Batsman award went to Paresh for his 197 runs in six matches while Shakti took the best bowler award for his 13 wickets in the event. Both award carried a purse of Rs. 10,000.
Dipendra was adjudged man of the series, an award with Rs. 15,000 cash reward. Dipendra scored 194 runs and took 7 wickets in the event and also played a couple of matches as wicket-keeper.
Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com