Abhishek stars as Janakpur beats Bhairahawa

Abhishek Jha produced an all-round performance to help Region No 7 (Janakpur) defeat Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) by 13 runs at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on Saturday for its second victory in the Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament.
Player-of-the-match Jha scored the highest 42 runs for Janakpur and later claimed six wickets in the team’s second match of Group B. Jha struck six fours and a six in his 75-ball knock after Janakpur elected to bat first.
Opener Hari Shankar Sah (20), Ansaj Upadhyaya (13), Rahul Pratap Singh (16), Chandan Jha (15) and Sameer Nepal (12) were the other batsmen to reach double figures as Janakpur was bowled out for 141 runs in 47.2 overs.
Rupesh Bastola claimed three wickets for Bhairahawa, while Devendra Somare, Dipendra Yadav and Susan Bhari took two each.
Jha then claimed six wickets to skittle Bhairahawa for 128 runs in 33.2 overs. He gave away 24 runs in his 9.2 overs, which included a maiden over. Gopal Singh and Rahul Pratap Singh took two wickets each. Bhairahawa received 34 runs in extras.
Nur Dhoj Sen (22), Bijay Sunar (24), Prakash KC (23) and Rupesh Bastola (11 not out) were the only Bhairahawa batsmen to reach double figures.
In another Group B match, Region No 9 (Kanchanpur) defeated Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) by three wickets at the Pulchowk Engineering Ground to make a winning start to its campaign.
Nepalgunj scored 144 runs in 37.3 overs after electing to bat first and Kanchanpur reached the target with 12 overs to spare losing seven wickets.
Seventh-order batsman Amar Singh Rautela’s 44 off 40 went in vain as seven Nepalgunj batsmen failed to reach double figures. Bhupendra Thapa (39 off 73) and Prajwal Shahi (21 off 35) were the only other batsmen to achieve double figure.
The player of the match Lalit Singh Bhandari and Deependra Airee pocketed three wickets each for Kanchanpur and Chandan Rawal got two.
In the run chase, opener batsman Sunil Dhamal scored 38 off 74 for Kanchanpur. Similarly, Raju Rijal contributed 32 run while Deependra Airee (17) and Yagyaman Kumal (7) were unbeaten.
Siddhant Shahi of Nepalgunj three and Aakash Bista two wickets respectively.
Nepalgunj will lock horn against Janakpur at the Pulchowk ground and Region no 8 (Pokhara) will lock horns against Kanchanpur at TU ground on Sunday.