Bhaktapur- Region No.5 Nepalgunj defeated Region No.6 Baitadi by 23 runs in the first day of U-19 National Cricket Tournament being played at Birendra Sainik Cricket Ground.
SCORECARD (Nepalgunj 149/10 (Ravindra Shahi 39, Yogesh Karki 2/19) defeated Baidati 126/10 (Yogendra Karki 44, Avinash Bohora 3/24 )
Put into field Baitadi restricted Nepalgunj to 149 as Nepalgunj lost their last 9 wickets for 68 runs. Earlier Ravindra Shahi(39) and Raj Bir Singh(41) added 72 runs for the second wicket after losing U16 keeper Sushant Thapa for a duck.
Once Prem Tamang dissmissed Ravindra Shahi Nepalgunj’s innings took a downward skew. Pranit Thapa the other U16 squad members put up a fight scorin 19 of 38 balls. Ajay Sahani was the only other batsman on double digits for Nepalgunj adding 19 runsm and with Bhupendra Roka he put up 24 runs – the second highest partnership of the inning. Roka made 2 off 20 balls. Sushant Thapa, Nabin B.T., Akash Bista and Bijay Chaudhary were out for ducks.
For Baitadi Arun Airee, Prem Tamang. Yogesh Karki, Kamal Airee each bagged 2 wickets for Baitadi.
Defending a modest total Avinash Bohora laid the foundation for a win dismissing Baitadi’s first three Dipesh Chand(01), Bikash Bam(0) and Umesh Kumar Pahari(4) with just 19 runs on board.
The match kept swinging both ways in the middle. Ayushman Bam and Dilip Nath added 26 runs for the 4th wicket. Ayushman was eventually run out for 12. Nepalgunj tightened their grip on the match getting rid of set Dilip(29) 15 runs and 4 overs later. The duo of Prem Tamang and Yogesh Karki added 45 runs for the 6th wicket as the match skewed towards Baitadi.
But Baitadi’s last four wickets added only 21 runs and in the end Nepalgunj were comfortable winners. Ajay Shahani was adjudged Man of the Match for his allround performance in the match.
Earlier, the match was reduced to 47 over due to wet out field.
