Region No 4 Bhairahawa and Region No 3 Kathmandu continued their hopes of qualifying to the final of the Boost U-16 National League Cricket Tournament winning their respective matches.
Sharad Khadka of Kathmandu bats against Biratnagar. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
Bhairahawa defeated Region No 5 Nepalgunj by 37 runs at the BSAM Ground and Kathmandu beat Region No 1 Biratnagar by four wickets at the IOE Ground.
The result left Bhairahawa second on the points table behind already qualified Region No 2 Birgunj with six points from four games while Kathmandu has four points from three games.
Nepalgunj, currently with two points from three games, can hope for a miracle to qualify for final while Region No 6 Baitadi, a win from four matches, and Biratnagar, winless in four matches, are out of the contest.
At Bhaktapur, Bhairahawa rode on captain and wicket-keeper’s performance to score a defendable total after winning the toss.
Captain Kiran Pandey scored 46 off just 37 balls with five fours and a six while Prakash KC got 52 off 54 balls with six fours and two sixes but the highlight of the innings was Inamuddin Halwai’s bowling.
Halwai took five wickets in his eight overs and helped in bowling out Bhairawa for 169 in 33.1 overs. Prabhat Shahi and Saroj Basnet helped the cause with two wickets each.
Apart from Kiran and Prakash, Nischal Pandey (20) and Satish Bhagat (17) contributed for Bhairahawa’s total that proved to be unreachable for Baitadi despite captain Washim Halwai’s second half-century in the tournament.
A brilliant opening spell from seamers that saw Nabin Shrestha and Devendra Somare bowling tightly and taking three wickets, Baitadi had rarely a chance to regain the pace. They were 13/3 in 9 overs with Nabin taking two wickets.
Washim’s played a lone hand partnering tail-enders for a few runs wiuth Saroj (20), Inamuddin (17) and Greesthi Rokka (11) but need to accelerate cost them dear.
Washim scored 56 off 76 balls with seven fours and was out ninth man at 132. At the same score, Baitadi ended the innings in 35.3 overs.
Nabin added a wicket more to finish at 3/12 while Bibek Chaudhary (2/26) and Sushan Bari (2/27) also grabbed crucial wickets in th middle. Inamuddin won man of the match award.
At Lalitpur, Biratnagar suffered yet another failure as they were bowled out for 129 in 31 overs after chosing to bat first. Early wicket loss which saw them 30/7 in 13 overs cost them the match and were in the danger of getting out for the lowest total of the event.
Sumit Chandra Dev’s unbeaten 40 off 47 balls with three fours and two sixes along with Birendra Dahal’s 28 off 54 balls took them to a honorable total. They partnered 66 for eighth wicket.
Opening bowling pair Bijaya Rokaya and captain Nupur Pandey were the main desinger of the destruction as they shared eight wickets between them. Bijaya finished with 5/21 and later man of the match trophy while Nupur’s figure was 3/19. Sharad Khadka took the remaining two wickets.
Nupur showed a quality of an all-rounder with innings highest 37 runs while Kathmandu chased the score. Sharad got 30 and despite other batsmen not getting good runs, the foundation they created by making it 113/2 in 27 overs helped them to get to victory.
The last busrt by Hari Chaulagain saw four wickets falling for nine runs – from 113/2, Kathmandu went down to 122/6 in 12 balls. Hari finsihed at 3/35 while Lilan Kharel returned 2/26.
On January 10, Biratnagar takes on Nepalgunj at IOE while Bhairahawa and Kathmandu battle in a crucial tie at BSAM. If Bhairahawa defeat Kathmandu, they would qualify for the final.
Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com