Kathmandu:
Republica Online
Newcomers Region No 7 (Janakpur) and Region No 8 (Pokhara) continued their winning streak in the ongoing Pepsi One Day National Cricket Tournament.
Janakpur defeated Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) by 12 runs in the match played at TU Ground, Kirtipur, while Pokhara beat Region No 6 (Baitadi) by mammoth 137 runs in the match played at Engineering Ground, Pulchowk on Friday.
Winning the toss, Janakpur scored 217 losing nine wickets in regular 50 overs. It had a good start of 44 runs. After the fall of Sobha Kant Pandey (9) in the 12.2 overs, Anil Kumar Mandal (24) was out in the next over.
Prahlad Sah and Hari Shankar Sah´s 71 runs partnership guided Janakpur to the respectable total. Prahlad Sah scored 40 runs off 80 balls while Hari Shankar Sah hit three boundaries in his 33 runs inning. Raj Mohammad came to bat in the sixth position and scored quick 43 off 42 balls with six boundaries.
Susan Bhari grabbed four wickets in his 10 over spell conceding 56 runs. Vibek Chaudhary took three wickets while Krishna Karki and Lal Bahadhur Adhikari shared a wicket each.
With the five wickets haul of Raj Mohammad, Janakpur packed Bhairahawa in 48.1 overs with 205 runs on board. This is the first loss for Bhairahawa in the tournament. Bhairahawa did not have a good start as it lost the first wicket when the score was seven on board. Regular fall of wickets continued until a 49-run partnership between Amit Shrestha and Krishna Karki rekindled Bhairahawa´s hopes of a comeback. But Bhairahawa´s dream for a win was shattered after Shrestha was run out in 28.6 overs. Shrestha scored 45 runs off 65 balls including three boundaries.
Mohammad gave away only 31 runs in nine overs and took five wickets. Rahul Pratap Singh, Kumar Prasun, Roshan Thakur and Abishek Jha shared a wicket each.
In another match, Pokhara won the toss and scored 268 runs losing seven wickets. 124 runs partnership for the eighth wicket between Nischal Pandey and Amrit Shrestha guided Pokhara to the huge total. Pokhara had lost their three batsmen in the first over of the inning.
Dipen Lamgade (0), Sailesh Shrivastav (4) and Dipesh Khatri (0) were out in the first over of Santosh Bhatt. Pandey and Shrestha came to bat when Pokhara had lost seven batsmen and the score was 144 runs in 31.4 overs.
Shrestha scored 88 runs in 68 balls that included four huge sixes and nine boundaries while Pandey hit 10 boundaries in his 74 runs innings off 96 balls. Pokhara Captain Rijan Prajoo had earlier scored 41 runs off 49 balls with four boundaries and a six.
Santosh Bhatta gave away 58 runs in his nine over spell taking three wickets. Kamal Raj Joshi sent three Pokharali batsmen back to the pavilion in his 10 overs spell conceding 42 runs. Sunil Tamang took one wicket.
Tight bowling from Pokhara players restricted Baitadi at 131 runs off 25.2 overs. Dipesh Khatri bagged five wickets in his 9.2 overs spell conceding 51 runs. Amrit Shrestha and Pradeep Rawat took two wickets each while Nischal Pandey bagged one.
Baitadi also did not have the good start and it continued to lose wickets in quick intervals. Opener Shakti Bhandari (0), Santosh Bhatta (13) and Dev Narayan Jha (9) were sent back to the pavilion by the end of fourth over. Neeraj Chand scored 35 runs off 43 balls before being stumped by Sailesh Shrivastav.
With the win, Pokhara tops the points table of group A with four points while Janakpur tops group B also with four points.
