Region No 4 Bhairahawa pulled consecutive victories in the U-16 National Cricket Tournament to strengthen their bid for final while Region No 2 Birgunj and Region No 5 Nepalgunj suffered consecutive loses to crash out of the tournament with a match each still to play.
Bhairahawa thrashed Nepalgunj by 76 runs on Monday in a group ‘B’ match played at the TU Cricket Ground while Region No 7 Janakpur registered their first win in the tournament as they defeated Birgunj by two wickets at the Engineering Ground, Pulchowk.
In a group ‘B’ match, Bhairahawa won the toss and elected to bat first. Bhairahawa was all out for 165 runs in 39.2 overs. Rahul Bhattarai scored unbeaten 28 runs for Bhairahawa while Sabin Ratna Shakya (21 runs), Prithivi Chaurel Chhetri (24 runs) were other contributors. However, Nepalgunj gave away 34 runs as extras, including 29 wides.
Akash Bista took three wickets and Prajwal Shahi claimed two wickets for Nepalgunj.
Chasing 166-run target in 40 overs, Nepalgunj was all out for 89 runs in 22.4 overs. Abrar Ahamed (10 runs) and Anup Neupane (11 runs) were the only batsmen to score in double digits. Bhairahawa also gave away 34 runs as extras including 25 wides.
Man-of-the-match Iklakh Ahmed took four wickets and Rupesh Bastola claimed three wickets to seal the victory for Bhairahawa.
In group ‘A’ match played at the Engineering ground, Birgunj won the toss and elected to bat first. Aquib Ali Ansari scored unbeaten 61 runs and Sitesh Tiwari added 19 runs as Birgunj was all out for 130 runs in 30.3 overs. Sasibhusan Mishra and Rabin Gupta took three wickets each for Janakpur.
Chasing the 130-run target, Janakpur met the target in 30.1 overs losing eight overs. Man-of-the-match Sasibhusan Mishra scored unbeaten 50 runs to seal the victory for Janakpur. Birgunj gave away 31 runs as extras including 25 wides.
Anand Gupta, Samsad Ansari and Aquib Ali Ansari took two wickets each for Birgunj.