Kathmandu/Cricnepal: Arihant Group Biratnagar – 1 and Maruti Suzuki XI Kathmandu – 1 registered victory in the opening day of the Nepal Marwadi Cricket League (NMCL) 2012 super league round here today.
In a first match, at Tribhuwan University Ground, Biratnagar defeated RMC Yodha Birgunj – 1 by six wickets. Biratnagar scored a total of 118 runs in loss of seven wickets off the maximum 20 overs after electing to bat first.
Pawan Agrawal scored 29 runs while Mahesh Jatia(17), Vivek Bhojania (16 n.o.), Jay Prakash Sarraf(15) and Anil Agrawal(15) served as the major contributors.
For Birgunj, Shambhu Rathi picked up three wickets while Manish Kothari, Arun Bihani and Gaurav Sethia claimed a wicket each.
In reply, Biratnagar chased the target in just 15.5 overs losing only four wickets. Shailesh Sethia, later adjudged as man of the match, remained unbeaten at the score of 47 runs off 51 balls including three fours and two sixes. Gaurav Shrestha also remained not out at 23 runs off 13 balls.
Pawan Agrawal picked up two wickets and Abishek Sharma grabbed a wicket.
In the second match, Bhairahawa were all out at 74 runs after put into bat first winning the toss. Maruti Suzuki XI Kathmandu – 1 chased the target in just 9.3 overs in loss of two wickets thus winning by eight wickets.
Girdhari lal Sharma remained unbeaten at 28 runs while Rahul Agrawal scored 10 runs, only batsman to score double digit figure.
Man of the match, Summit Sharma was the pick up the bowlers with four wickets while Naveen Jain and Umesh Kochar picked up two wickets each and Amol Sharma claimed a wicket.
In reply, openers Hitesh Dalmiya and Amol Sharma played their best to make an easy win for Kathmandu. Dalmiya scored 32 runs off 23 balls while Sharma made 21 runs off 25 balls. Dalmiya and Sharma shared a 57 runs partnership for first wicket. Sandeeb Bhatera finished to win for Kathmandu with unbeaten 9.
Ashok Daga and Raunak Agrawal claimed a wicket each for Bhairahawa.
Kathmandu and Biratnagar collect two points each after the win. Kathmandu is ahead with the net run rate of +4.194 while Biratnagar has +1.615.
A total of four teams are playing the super league round and the winner and runner up will progress to the final to be played on Saturday.
On Thursday, RMC Yodha Birgunj – 1 will play Maruti Suzuki XI Kathmandu – 1 in the first match while Arihant Group Biratnagar – 1 will take on Bagmati Chargers Bhairahawa – 1 in the second match.
