Bibek Chaudhary’s five-wicket haul ensured Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) a 47-run victory over Region No 2 (Birgunj) on Friday in the Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament being held in Pokhara.
Bhairahawa elected to bat but was all out for 110 runs in 31.2 overs. However, Chaudhary’s magical bowling helped Bhairahawa to bundle out Birgunj for meager 63 runs in 30.3 overs.
Bhairahawa lost its opener very early and was languishing at 17/3 in 6.4 overs. However, Bijay Sunar and Ganesh Gaudel put up an 83-run stand for the fourth wicket. Sunar scored 37 runs off 92 balls including five boundaries before Aarif Shekh claimed his wicket in the first ball of the 27th over. Bhairahawa, then, collapsed adding only 10 runs for remaining six wickets. Birgunj bowled 22 extras.
Shekh, Irshad Ahamed and Abinash Karna claimed three wickets each. Shekh’s bowling figure of 4-1-3-3 was the peak among them.
Despite good bowling show, Birgunj faltered terribly in batting. Shekh (10 runs off 20 balls) and No 10 Sagar Gupta (10 runs off 44 balls) were the highest scorers. Birgunj defeat would have been more pathetic, had not Bhairahawa bowled 12 extras.
Player-of-the-match Bibek Chaudhary claimed five wickets. His bowling figure was 10-2-19-5. Susan Bhari dismissed two Birgunj batsmen while Devendra Somare, Man Bahadur Thapa and Eklakh Ahmed took a wicket each to seal the 47-run victory for Bhairahawa.
Bhairahawa will take on Region No 7 (Janakpur) on Saturday.