KATHMANDU: Region-III (Kathmandu) defeated Region-VIII (Pokhara) by six wickets in the Pepsi Standard Chartered One Day National Cricket Tournament here at the TU Stadium today.
Electing to bat first, Pokhara were bowled out for 149 runs in 44.3 overs before Kathmandu reached 153-4 in 39.2 overs. Pokhara had a disastrous start losing opener Dipesh Khatri for a duck in the third ball of the innings, clean bowled by Pramod Basnet.
Sailesh Basnet departed soon and Pokhara came under pressure after losing third wicket with 34 runs on the board. Shiva Subedi and Dipen Lamgade added 43 runs for the fourth wicket – the best partnership of the innings. Shiva top scored for the team with 39 off 92 balls, while Ishan Baniya scored 36 off 39 balls down the order to give some respectability to the total. Rijan Prajoo (15) was the other batsman to score in double figures.
Man-of-the-match Bijay Gautam was the pick of the Kathmandu bowlers with 4-20 off 10 overs, while Pramod took 2-13 off five overs. Rikesh Lama and Rajesh Pulami pocketed one wicket apiece.
In reply, Kathmandu openers Suman Uday and Suman Shrestha put on 36 runs on the board in 11 overs before the former fell for 20 runs. Suman and Pawan Shrestha (18) added another 30 runs for the second wicket, while Suman also featured in the 49-run stand for the third wicket with Rajesh Pulami.
Suman scored 30 off 84 balls, while Pulami returned unbeaten on 51 off 71 balls hitting six fours and a six. Prabin Joshi scored 20-ball 16. For Pokhara, Dipen Lamgade took two, while Dipesh and Shiva Subedi claimed one wicket each.
In another match at the Engineering Campus grounds in Lalitpur, Region-VII (Janakpurdham) edged Region-I (Biratnagar) by 19 runs. Batting first, Janakpur were bowled out for 177 runs in 30 overs before packing Biratnagar for 147 in 35.1 overs.
Anil Kumar Mandal top scored for Janakpur with 83 off just 57 balls hitting 11 fours and three sixes, while Prahlad Shah scored 55-ball 33 including three boundaries and a six. The duo added 107 runs for the second wicket after opener Shova Kant Pandey was dismissed for 17 runs with 34 runs on the board.
After the dismissal of Raj Mohammad at 161, Janakpur suffered a landslide collapse losing other seven wickets for just 16 runs in seven overs, with Manoj Mandal taking the first hat-trick of the tournament. Manoj had Prahlad Sah (33) caught by Sunil Bista in the 26.5 overs before trapping Roshan Thakur (naught) leg before with the next ball. He completed his hat-trick with the first ball of the 28th over when he bowled Rahul Pratap Singh (one).
Chasing a revised target of 167 from 43 overs due to rain, Biratnagar batsmen failed to build significant partnerships after the dismissal of Sunil Bista (naught) in the second over even before the team could open the accounts. Anup Karki, batting at No 8, top scored with 28 off 52 balls, while No 11 batsman Sanjeev Baral remained unbeaten on 24 off 30 balls hitting four fours. The duo added 50 runs for the last wicket. Ajay Rajbanshi was the third best contributor with 20 off 35 balls including three fours, while opener Somesh Yadav scored 12 off 22.
For Janakpur, Anil Kumar Mandal returned to take 4-27 that also earned him the man-of-the-match award, while Abhishek Jha claimed 2-36. Rahul Pratap Singh and Roshan Thakur pocketed one wicket apiece.
THT
