Nary Thapa became the first women player in Nepal to score a ton in domestic tournament. Thapa who also captaining region no.5 Nepalgunj scored an unbeaten 121 runs against region no.3 Kathmandu to give her team second victory in a row. She had scored 52 runs yesterday against Birgunj.
Nepali women cricket saw dawn only in 2005 and for players scoring a century was a distant dream-much of that because the matches used be just 25 overs for each team. This was the first time the tournament was extended 40 overs each and it bore fruit immediately as Thapa portrayed that Nepali women batters have mustered the skills to stay in the crease and bat for longer duration.
Thapa scored unbeaten 121 runs off 128 balls for the maiden century of Nepali women’s cricket. She struck 21 boundaries in the
process. Thapa, who reached half-century mark off 52 balls, wrote history with the three-digit figure from 109 balls.
Thapa has a few more records to her name, former captain of Nepali Women Team, she became the first player from Nepal to score a half century in International Cricket, as she garnered 66 runs against the UAE in the ACC U-19 Women’s Championship 2010 in Singapore. She had struck a six for Nepal in that tournament, very rare sight in Associate and Affiliate Women’s Cricket, to become the first Nepali Women player to score a six.
Kathmandu vs. Nepalgunj
Riding on the century scored by player-of-the-match Thapa, Nepalgunj Nepalgunj put up 205/2 in allotted 40 overs. Trishna Singh scored 33* to support Nary.
Defending 205 Samana Pun bagged a five wicket haul-the first of the tournament as Nepalgunj sealed a huge 115-run victory over Kathmandu in the match.
Sandya KC top scored for Kathmandu with 34 runs and Rubina Bisunkhe made 12. Beside Pun, Samjhana got two scalps while TTrishna Singh, Anu KC and RekhaBC dismissed a batter each.
Bhairhawa vs. Birgunj
In the other match played today Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) beat Region No 2 (Birgunj) by 42 runs on at the Army Cricket Ground, Bhaktapur.
Bhairahawa riding on 45 runs from Saraswoti Pun posted 135 runs before getting knocked over in 31.2 overs. Birgunj were once again all over the place with the ball giving away 37 runs as extras. They had gifted 35 extras to Nepalgunj in the previous match.Pushpa Aryal, Subhadra Adhikari and Sita Shrestha claimed two wickets each.
Bhairahawa elected to bat and was all out for 135 runs in 31.2 overs. Saraswoti Pun was the top scorer for Bhairahawa with 45 runs off 63 balls while Nitu Bhandari garnered 14 runs off 20 balls. Birgunj gave away 37 runs as extras. Pushpa Aryal, Subhadra Adhikari and Sita Shrestha claimed two wickets each for Birgunj.
Defending modest total Barsa Rana bagged four wickets as Birgunj folded for 93 in 21.3 overs. Sita Shrestha top scored for Birgunj with 26 runs. Indu Berma bagged 3 wickets while Shaiya Gurung picked two.
