Nary Thapa is the icon of woman cricket and she once again proved it leading her Region No 5 Nepalgunj to the title off the wai Wai Women’s National Twenty20 Cricket Tournament at the TU Cricket Ground.
Nepalgunj with the trophy. Photo courtesy: myrepublica.com
Inspired by Nary’s unbeaten 37 and two wickets, Nepalgunj beat Region No 6 Baitadi by 37 in the final. Nary lifted the champions’ trophy along awards for best bowler and player of the tournament.
Winning toss, Baitadi invited Nepalgunj to bat first. The decision looked a good one as Nepalgunj batswomen struggled to score runs and lost wickets frequently.
Rekha Rawal led the wrecking taking three wickets that brought down Nepalgunj to 38/5. It was Nary who fought lone-handed scoring 37 in 46 balls with six boundaries. Other contributions came from Sita Ran and Trishna Singh who each scored nine runs.
Nary made it difficult for Baitadi batswomen to score runs. She bowled Roshani Bohara in fourth over, saw Maya Rawat run out in sixth and bowled Baitadi’s most successful player Janaki Bhatt in the eighth finishing her four over spell at 2/7.
From there on, Baitadi never really picked up. Sita Rana and Samana Pun took two wickets each to bowl out Baitadi for 48 in 19.2 overs. The topscorer was Rekha Rawal who got 16. None of other batswomen scored more than five runs.
Nary took the best bowler and player of the tournament for her 11 wickets in 20 overs and 111 runs in five matches averaging 111. She received Rs. 10,000, a cricket bat and half-a-dozen cricket balls for her awards.
Bhairahawa’s Madhu Thapa was declared best batswoman for her 157 runs in four innings at an average of 39.25. Madhu received Rs. 5,000 cash and a cricket bat.
Nepalgunj was awarded Rs. 25,000 while runners-up Baitadi received Rs. 15,000 as prize.
Nary Thapa receives the winners' trophy. Photo courtesy: myrepublica.com
Prizes were given by Binaya Raj Pandey (President of CAN), Upendra Prasad Bhattarai (Vice President of CAN), Santosh Mardan Thapa (Member of CAN), Uttam Karmacharya (former national captain and member of CAN), Binod Raj Rajbhandari (member of CAN), Arun Satyal (member of CAN), Bijay Sharma (Chief Selector), Bhim Shrees (Former President of Free Student Union of T.U), Lal Babu Prasad (Senior Marketing Manager of Chaudhary Group) and Surendra Khanal (Marketing Manager of Chaudhary Group).