Armed Police Force (APF) Club registered a massive 176-run victory over Mid-Western Region with a century knock from Sharad Vesawakar during the Indian Ambassador’s Cricket Cup T20 Tournament on Tuesday. With the win, APF secured a place in Wednesday’s final and will lock horns for the title with the Western Region which defeated Far-Western Region by six wickets in another semifinal match.
Besides Vesawakar’s glittering show, Subash Khakurel also posted a half century to help APF score a total of 247 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs. Number three batsman Vesawakar was unbeaten on 111 runs off just 38 balls with eight boundaries and nine huge sixes. Vesawakar faced 21 balls for the first fifty while he faced only 13 balls for another fifty.
Opener Khakurel completed half century in just 32 balls. Khakurel scored 72 off 48 balls with nine boundaries and a huge six. Khakurel and Vewsawakar shared a 111-run partnership for the second wicket. Dipendra Chaudhary scored 30 runs off 16 balls while Sanjay Shrestha scored 28 runs off 17 balls. Siddhant Raj Shahi, Yogesh Bam and Anupam Singh grabbed a wicket each.
In chasing the huge total of 248 runs, Mid- Western was restricted in just 71 runs in 16.5 overs. Sunam Gautam grabbed three wickets while Vesawakar and Prithu Baskota took two wickets each. Basanta Regmi and Paras Khadka shared a wicket apiece.
Subendu Pandey was the highest scorer for Mid-Western with 23 runs off 24 balls while Rupesh Sharma scored 19 runs off 32 balls. Other batsmen of Mid-Western could not reach the double figure margin.
Earlier, in the first match of the day, Western Region invited Far-Western Region to bat first and restricted it for just 52 runs. Bijay Thapa grabbed three wickets while Lal Bahadur Adhikar and Rahul BK took two wickets.
Pradeep Airee scored 15 runs off 16 balls while Santosh Bhatt scored 13 runs off 29 balls. Other Far-Western batsmen could not reach the double figure margin.
Western Region did not have a good start while chasing the low total of 53 runs as it lost its opener Fajlur Rahman on five. Western lost its four batsmen with the total of 15 runs on board. But opener Subash Pradhan and Krishna Karki shared a winning 41-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Pradhan was not out on 21 runs off 26 balls while Karki was unbeaten on 18 runs off 30 balls.
Chandra Saud and Santosh Bhatt grabbed two wickets each for Far-Western.