Kathmandu Khel Mandal and Mahabir have reached finals of Kathmandu Senior T20 Selection Tournament after winning their semi final match played today at Pulchowk Engineering Cricket Ground. KKM and Mahabir were the finalist of previous year’s selection tournament as well.
Defending champions KKM defeated Nepali Cricket Fan Club by 5 wickets. NCFC who has defeated Baluwatar Cricket Academy yesterday to enter semis were confident of good show. Winning the toss and batting first Fan Club in absence of their star player Sompal Thapa never looked to be in the match. Madhav Yadav once again held innings for NCFC top scoring for Team with 22 runs as Fan Club crawled to 57 runs before being knocked over in 15th over. Dr. Niraj Bhattarai picked up 3 wickets for KKM with his left arm spin.
KKM lost wickets but 57 was too little score to defend for spirited Fan Club bowlers against likes of Niraj Bhattarai and Niraj Basnet who starred in Region No.3 Camp last year. Bikash Chaudhary broke early for NCFC getting two wickets-the second wicket of Niraj Bhattarai was undoubtedly the best cricket of the day: Niraj got a thin nick chasing a wide ball from Bikash and the keeper Arjun Adhikari took a prolific one handed catch flying to his left. “That was one of the best catches I have seen”, Bhattarai told Cricnepal stunned at his dismisssal.
Niraj Basnet who also captained Region No.3 Kathmandu last year scored a match winning innings of 22 runs. He had also picked up two wickets in the first innings. Basnet was rightly adjudged the player of the player of the match by the Umpires
In the other match played today Mahabir comprehensively defeated Youth Cricket Club by 88 runs. Batting first Mahabir posted 190 runs in 20 overs and restricted Youth Cricket Club to 102 to enter the final.
