Cricnepal/Kathmandu: Host Region Number 8 Pokhara made a good start to the Wai Wai Under 19 National Cricket Tournament with a 35 runs victory over Region Number 7 Janakpur at Rangashala Ground, Pokhara today.
Winning the toss, Pokhara opted to bat first and scored a moderate 227 runs losing all of their wickets in 49 overs. Dhurba Karki top scored with 58 runs off 72 balls and also shared a 106 runs partnership for second wicket with Anil Gurung. Gurung scored 46 runs off 77 deliveries with eight boundaries before being run out while Karki hit nine fours. Manoj Koirala 31, Sanjosh Bhattarai 27 ad Dipesh Shrestha 10 were some other major contributors. Pokhara got 38 runs as extras.
For Janakpur; Sameer Nepal picked up four wickets, Sushant Mandal and Abhisek Jha took two wickets each while Gopal Singh grabbed one.
In reply, Janakpur managed to score only 192 runs in 46.2 overs. Janakpur lost their opener Chandan Jha for 2 runs while the next wicket went at the team score of 38 runs. Rajaul Mustafa, the third number batsman scored 28 runs but the team couldn’t build a handy partnership. Ansarul Rain scored 19 runs while Mistafa faced 51 balls and scored four boundaries.
54 runs partnership was the highest partnership for Janakpur shared by Sameer Nepal and Rahul Pratap Singh. Nepal scored 33 runs off 50 deliveries with two fours and a six before being trabbed leg before wicket by Shushil Kandel in 34th over. Singh added 23 off 50 balls. Abhishek Jha remained unbeaten with score of 33 at one end but the wicket at another end kept on falling. Jha played 35 balls and hit two boundaries and a six. The turning point of the match was 43rd over where Janakpur lost three of their wickets at the team score of 168 runs. Rakesh Kamait added 14 runs. Janakpur got 30 runs as extras.
Man of the match, Sushil Kandel picked up four wickets conceding only 27 runs off his 10 overs spell, Nischal Pandey grabbed two wickets while Shiva Shrestha and Dipesh Shrestha claimed wicket apiece for Pokhara.
On Friday’s match, Region Number 2 Birgunj will face Region Number 4 Bhairahawa.
