Region No 7 (Janakpur) registered a thrilling one-wicket victory over Region No 8 (Pokhara) in the opening match of the Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament on Friday.
Pokhara elected to bat and was all out for 141 runs in 36.4 overs. In reply, Janakpur reached the target in 37.4 overs losing nine wickets.
At the Pulchowk Engineering Cricket Ground, Pokhareli openers Sanjosh Bhattarai (16 runs) and Manoj Koirala (21 runs) put up a 44-run partnership. Even though other batsmen failed against the bowling attack of Janakpur, Dhurba Karki scored 47 runs off 60 balls to guide Pokhara to a respectable total.
Abhishek Jha took four wickets while Gopal Singh, Rahul Pratap Singh and Hari Shankar Sah claimed two wickets each.
In chasing the total, Janakpur suffered hiccups as it lost opener Sanjeet Pandey and Chandan Jha cheaply. Another opener Hari Shankar Shah scored 18 runs off 21 balls. However, a 40-run partnership between Ansaj Upadhyay (21 runs) and skipper Rahul Pratap Singh for the fifth wicket and another 28-run partnership between Singh and Sameer Nepal (14 runs) gave Janakpur a hope. Singh garnered 38 runs off 59 balls. Janakpur lost a couple of wickets in quick succession again but Kailash Mandal chipped in with unbeaten nine runs of 13 balls to seal thrilling one-wicket victory.
Janakpur skipper Singh was awarded man-of-the-match for his all round performance.
Janakpur will lock horns with Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) at TU Cricket Ground on Saturday while Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) will take on Region No 9 (Mahendranagar) at the Pulchowk Engineering Cricket Ground.