Kathmandu – Nepal Police Club bowlers played their part in the final by restricting APF Club to 105 in Kathmandu Mayor’s Cup on Saturday.
Nepal Police’s fast bowler Gulsan Jha and spinner Sagar Dhakal rout APF Club for a modest total of 105. The duo bagged four wickets each.
Gulsan playing his second match for the Police team produced an immaculate line and length to dismiss the top order. He tried the short pitch deliveries against opener Shankar Rana (4) and dismissed him in the fifth ball of the first over. Rana was caught behind.
Aasif Sheikh was caught in the second over off Sagar Dhakal. Captain Sharad Vesawkar couldn’t handle the bounce from Jha and was caught behind as well. All the in-form players Shankar Rana, Aasif Sheikh and Sharad Vesawkar failed to trouble the scorers, departing for a duck. APF were rocked back to 10 for 3 at 2.1 overs.
Bhuvan Karki (14) and Sundeep Jora (18) added 32 runs for the fourth wicket but Gulshan sent Karki to the pavilion after caught behind. Jora was trapped leg before off Lalit Rajbanshi and APF were struggling at 47 for 5 at 12.1 overs.
Sumit Maharjan played 29 balls, however, his long stay at the crease only produced four runs as he was dismissed by another spinner, Pawan Sarraf.
Basant Regmi (22) and Amar Routela (18) tried to steady the ship with a 30-run partnership for the seventh wicket. Both the batsmen were dismissed by Sagar Dhakal in consecutive deliveries at 28th over. Regmi was trapped in front and Routela was bowled.
Gulsan was brought on and immediately the bouncer produced a wicket for him. Kamal Airee went for 1 run, caught behind. The last pair took the score past 100 runs. Abinash Bohara thrashed three boundaries to add 12 runs to the total before Dhakal removed Bohara and APF were bundled out for 105 runs in 27.4 overs.
For Nepal Police, Gulsan Jha was the pick of the bowlers, bagging four wickets in his seven overs (7-0-36-4) and Sagar Dhakal produced four wickets from the wicket (7.4-0-28-4).
