Kathmandu – Colors XFactors finally registered their first win in the ongoing Nepal Premier League (NPL) defeating Sagarmatha Legends by four wickets at Fapla Ground, Dhangadi.
Legends won the toss and decided to batted first on a damp wicket. Opening the inning, Anil Mandal (9) and Sunil Dhamala (18) tried to occupy the crease till the sixth over. But Faisal Khan broke their partnership dismissing Dhamala and soon after Mandal also threw his wicket. He was caught and bowled by Hari Shankar Sah. Dilip Nath, Binod Bhandari and Mehboob Alam were dismissed for 5, 1 and 1 runs respectively. At that stage, Legends were struggling for 49/5 in 18.4 overs.
Paresh Lohani 18(53) and Rahul Kumar V.K. 22(49) then steady the ship and took the score to 89 runs in 31.4 overs but as they were looking to pile up the run Raj Mohammed dismissed Lohani.
Sanjam Regmi then grabbed three quick wickets to wrap up the Legends in 38.3 overs for a modest 105 runs. Kumar Thapa, Raj Mohammed and Hari Shankar shared six wickets between them.
In Reply, Subash Pradhan (13) and Faisal Khan (13) opened their inning for XFactors. Both of them had a good start but again Pradhan was unlucky to get a bad decision. He was trapped in front of Nischal Pandey. Khan threw his wicket away and they were in some kind of trouble. Rajesh Pulami didn’t open his account and that brought Captain Gyanendra Malla at the crease.
From 34/3 in 8.3 overs, Malla (36) and Hari Shankar (33*) put on a 54 runs partnership for fourth wicket and made a big statement for their fans. But soon Malla gave an easy catch to point fielder off Pandey, Xfactors lost two quick wickets and were struggling to reach the target.
But Siddhant Lohani (9*) had another idea and closed the match by hitting a Six in 27.3 overs. Nishchal Pandey was pick of the bowler for Legends as he grabbed four wickets. Lal Bahadur Adhikari and Rahul V.K. shared wicket apiece.
For his all round performance, Hari Shankar Sah was adjudged as Man of the Match.
This was first win for Xfactors in this tournament and will play against Panchaykanya Tez at Covered Hall Ground, Kanchanpur on Monday.
