Region No 9 (Kanchanpur) and Region No 7 (Janakpur) have advanced into the semifinals of the Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament, from Group B.
Kanchanpur crushed Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) by 182 runs at the Pulchowk Engineering College ground for its third victory in a row. Kanchanpur’s win also helped Janakpur secure its place in the last-four of the tournament. Kanchanpur and Janakpur have six points each from three matches and the last group match between them on Wednesday will decide the group winner. The other three teams in the group — Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Pokhara — crashed out with at least one match in hand.
Tail-enders Bhuwan Karki and Deependra Airee shone with the bat and Lalit Bhandari bowled brilliantly to seal a comfortable victory for Kanchanpur. Skipper Karki (84) and Airee (69) shared an unbeaten partnership of 172 to guide the team to 240/6.
Kanchanpur was teetering at 68/6 at one stage, but Karki and Airee rescued the team. Karki hit nine boundaries during his 109-ball knock and Airee struck six boundaries facing 85 deliveries. Tekendra Mal (18) and Raju Rijal (22) were the only other batsmen to reach double figures.
Deependra Yadav and Susan Bhari of Bhairahawa grabbed two wickets each.
Player-of-the-match Lalit Bhandari then stole the show claiming six wickets to bowl out Bhairahawa for a paltry total of 58 in 18.5 overs. Bhandari gave 26 runs in his 9.5 overs, which included two maidens. Sunil Dhamala took 4-12 to wrap up the victory for Kanchanpur. Rupesh Bastola (19) was the only batsman to reach double figures for Bhairahawa, which lost six batsmen for a duck.
Gotcha: Devendra Somare (Bhairahawa) clean bowled by Lalit Singh Bhandari (Kanchanpur) during Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament on November 12, 2013. Bhandaro took six wickets in this match.
Kathmandu maintains winning run
Region No 3 (Kathmandu) recorded its second consecutive victory in Group B defeating Region No 6 (Baitadi) by 69 runs at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. Kathmandu tops the standings with four points while Baitadi is pointless after two matches.
Put into bat first, Kathmandu scored a formidable total of 285/9 and bowled out Baitadi for 216 in 35.2 overs despite a century from Dilip Nath.
Kathmandu openers Prakash Bista-A (52) and Ashish Dhami (93) put up 68 runs for the first wicket. Skipper Bibhatshu Thapa (43) shared a 94-run partnership for the second wicket with Dhami before being caught by Jagdish Chand. Arjun Adhikari hit 36 for Kathmandu, as Baitadi gave away 28 extra runs.
Dhami struck 11 fours during his innings of 135 balls. Bista-A hit two sixes and six fours off 46 deliveries. Thapa smashed five fours in his 50-ball knock. Basanta Khatri and Suraj Budal pocketed three wickets each of Kathmandu.
In the run-chase, Dilip Nath hit a quickfire 123 off 84 for Baitadi, coming in at 6, but failed to prevent his team from defeat. Nath blasted five sixes and 15 fours before being bowled by Som Pal Kami. Skipper Prem Tamang (27), Yogendra Karki and Basanta Khatri (13) were the other batsmen to reach double figures.
Besides taking the vital wicket of Nath for Kathmandu, Kami also took three other wickets while Prakash Bista-B dismissed two Baitadi batsmen.
Dhami of Kathmandu and Nath of Baitadi were jointly awarded player-of-the-match.