The senior national team led by Gyanendra Malla made an interesting 5 wicket win over the Under 19 team led by Prithu Baskota at Tribhuvan University (T.U.) ground today.
Winning the toss the U-19 team decided to bat first but could not resist the class bowling of the seniors and hence were bowled out for just 151 runs in 35.1 overs. The openers, Sagar Pun and Pradeep Airee could not make a strong base for the team. Sagar scored 8 runs while Pradeep was out for 10 runs.
Meanwhile, Skipper Baskota tried to pull things back with 6 fours to give some hope to the team before Sanjam Regmi took his wicket for 38 runs. Rajesh Pulami 9 runs, Fajlur Rehman 3 runs & Hasim Ansari managed 13 runs respectively. U19 team lost their top 5 wickets just for 86 runs in 17.2 overs. Only Krishna Karki 24 runs helped the team total to reach 151 runs before they were dismissed. Extras 32 runs were the second top scorer for them.
Amrit Bhattarai and Chandra Saud who are already chosen for Srilankan club side showed their class performance in the game. Amrit took 1 wicket and gave away 27 runs in his 6 overs while, Chandra took 2 wickets giving away 36 runs in his 6.1 overs. The all time favorites Binod Das & Sanjam Regmi took 2 wickets each. Sharad Veswakar and Rom Shrestha managed 1-1 wickets.
The openers from senior team had a slow start and toiled hard to get the innings going during the chase. They lost the first wicket for 12 runs in 7.2 overs Dipendra chaudary scored 16 runs(38 balls) where as Bijay Ghalan managed 7 runs (28 balls) only. Pawan Shrestha and Rom Shrestha contributed 12 and 13 runs for the seniors, while Sharad Veswakar scored 18 runs until he was bowled by Rahul Vishwakarma. At that stage, they were 92/5 in 25.3 overs.
The unbeaten sixth wicket partnership between Gyanendra Malla and Sunam Gautam then helped the senior team to chase down the target in 39.3 overs. 33 runs (39 balls, 4 fours) came from Gyanendra Malla’s bat while, Gautam contributed 42 runs in 58 balls in their partnership.
Spinner Rahul Vishwakarma looked more effective against the seniors today. He took 2 wickets in his 8.3 overs giving 32 runs. Similarly, Prithu Baskota, Saurabh Khanal and Bhuwan Karki took one wicket each.
Vinay Kumar Jha and Ram Kailash Yadav officiated the friendly match.
News by Pratik Gyawali edited by Nischal Tiwari
