Dhangadhi- New Horizon College (Butwal) clinched the title of 4th Hotel Devotee SPA Cup 2015 in an exciting contest defeating Sunshine College (Bhairahawa) by 7 runs in a match played at Seti Zone Police Ground, Dhangadhi on Saturday.
In what was a thrilling final, New Horizon opted to bat first after winning the toss. Though they lost their opener Nurdhoj Sen for a duck in the third ball of the inning, Sandip Sunar and new man in Nirmal Thapa carried the innings with a 63 run partnership for the second wicket before Sandip was dismissed. Sandip scored a brisk 34 runs off 21 balls. Nirmal’s slow innings of 26 runs off 38 balls came to the end 18 runs later when Subodh Shrivastav bowled him in the 13th over. With the help of Sompal Kami’s blazing inning of 40 runs off 29 balls and Saurav Khanal’s 24 runs off just 8 balls, New Horizon managed a good total of 171/6 in 20 overs.
Dipendra Yadav picked two wickets for Sunshine while Mayank Yadav, Subodh Shrivastav, and Sabaz Khan shared wicket apiece.
Sunshine started in a lusty manner with the help of Subodh Shrivastav who muscled New Horizon bowlers all over the park. They reached the 50 runs mark in only the fifth over though losing two wickets and with Subodh still at the crease. However, a brilliant throw from Dipendra caught him well short of the crease in 7.2 over, ending his exciting inning of 40 runs off 21 balls. Antim Thapa and Mayank Yadav shared a 68 runs partnership for the fourth wicket but they were not able to catch the required run rate.
Shakti Gauchan produced a magic 15th over uprooting the stumps of danger man Mayank Yadav, who scored 44 runs in just 27 balls- and in the next delivery removing Nischal Chaudhary out for a duck. with 4 overs to spare Sunshine needed 43 runs to win with set batsman Antim Thapa at the crease. Two overs later, Antim Thapa was declared out for obstructing the field that changed the courtesy of the game. Man Bahadur Thapa tried to make up for things hitting 21 runs off just 12 ball in the end but Sunshine finished still 7 runs behind New Horizon in 19.5 overs losing all the wickets. New Horizon bowlers really held their nerve and among them was Man of the match Saurav Khanal who picked up three wickets along with Shakti Gauchan. Sompal Kami and Sushan Bhari alson managed one wicket each.
New Horizon became the new champions of Nepal’s biggest cash prize tournament, Hotel Devotee SPA Cup 2015 and pocketed 5 Lakhs Rupees while the runner-ups Sunshine College received 2 Lakhs Rupees.
