Region Number 9 Dhangadi defeated Region No. 5 Nepalgunj by two wickets in a friendly Two Day-Cricket match competed. The U-16 sides of the two regions competed in the match-intended to be a practice match for the forth coming National U-16 Tournament.
The low scoring thriller-looked more of a seesaw match. It was any team’s match till the last innings with both taking turns on looking the favorites to win.
The day one of the match had ended yesterday with Nepalgunj on 9 runs in the third innings. Riding on Rabin Chhetri’s top score of 16 runs Nepalgunj had posted 108/10 runs in the first innings batting 39.2 overs. Kiran Chand(5) and Anil(4) shared 9 wickets between each other as the hosts restricted Nepalgunj to what then seemed to be a low score. Then Nepalgunj did an equally good job with the ball as the hosts folded for 114 runs batting for 37.5 over. Prakash Saud top scored for Dhangadi with 29 runs. Deependra jaiswal got four scalps for Nepalgunj in the first innings.
Nepalgunj started the innings today on 15-4 but made a tremendous recovery bolstered by half century from Binayak Giri. Giri made 54 as Nepalgunj posted127 runs setting a formidable target of 122 runs for the hosts.
Dhangadi made a terrific start with the chase as the openers Rabi Chand(35) and Paras Rawal(17) added over 50 runs for the first wicket. After the openers the host’s innings looked to be falling apart. Ajay Sahani bagged 5 wickets for Nepalgunj to give them hopes of winning. Little contribution from Sandip Khadka(17), Puran Singh(15), and Amit Pahad(11) turned out to be the difference between the two teams as host crawled across the line.
