Defending champion Region No 4 Bhairahawa and Region No 1 Biratnagar began the Springwood National League Cricket Tournament with thumping victories on Friday.
Biratnagar defeated Region No 5 Nepalgunj by seven wickets at the Lab Ground while Bhairahawa outplayed Region No 6 Baitadi by 196 runs at the TU Cricket Ground. Bhairahawa bowled out Baitadi for 49 in 16 overs.
Shakti Gauchan decided to bat first to give his batsmen some practice ahead of the big clash against Biratnagar on Saturday and his players came up with flying colors. The defending champion scored 245 in 49.3 overs with man-of-the-match Manoj Vaishya and Antim Thapa scoring half-centuries.
The pair added 122 runs for the third wicket and laid the foundation for the big score. Vaishya was run out on 64 off 112 balls with just two fours while Antim got 52 in 86 deliveries hitting four boundaries. Trying to get quick runs toward the end, no other batsman could get big score. Bijay Thapa (18), last man Amrit Bhattarai (not out 13) and Akash Gupta (11) reached double figure.
Bhairahawa also benefitted from 61 extra runs given away by Baitadi bowlers. Sher Singh Khatri took three wickets as Dhirendra Chand and Chandra Saud each walked away with two wickets.
Baitadi, seeking its first win in the national league, was disastrous in batting despite having the services of chief cricket coach Arun Aryal. It lost Binod Bhandari (9) in the second over. Uttam Bhatta (10) and Padam KC (7) played for 20 runs – the biggest partnership of the innings.
Once they were removed by Shakti, the Baitadi innings fell like a house of cards. Baitadi’s 49 contained 18 extra runs. Shakti led the bowling from the front taking three wickets giving nine runs. Amrit, who was wayward, also got three and Basanta Regmi claimed two wickets.
At the Lab Ground, Raj Kumar Pradhan cleaned off the tail taking four wickets to help Biratnagar bowl out lowly Nepalgunj for 66 in 22.2 overs before Mehboob Alam showed a flash of his aggressive batting hitting eight boundaries to score 35 off just 14 balls.
With Mehboob on song, Biratnagar completed the minnow-bashing in 9.1 overs losing three wickets. Sunil Bista (9) and Yashwant Subedi (9*) contributed to the total.
Earlier, Nepalgunj captain Mahesh Chhetri failed to get support from his batsmen as his team was bowled out for a lowly total despite his 43 off 36 balls. He too got eight fours while 10 other batsmen combined for 11 runs, with seven out for duck, and 12 runs coming in extras.