Everyone knows Nepali Blind Cricket are crazy for Cricket. The First Six in Blind Cricket’s History on Valentines Day – The Blind Cricketers could not be more romantic.
Padam Bahadur Badela of Banke struck the first-ever six in the history of Nepali blind cricket. Riding in his 67 runs Banke defeated Bagmati by 18-runs on the opening day of 5th National Blind Cricket Tournament. Badela is partially blind cricketer who was also part of Nepal’s World Cup Squad last year. Earlier defending champions Lumbini had defeated first time entrants Nepal Army by 54 runs.
With fireworks from Badela which included 5 boundaries along with the “first-ever” six Banke posted 167 runs, Bagamati were restriced for 149. Badela also took 2 wickets with the ball and thus was adjudged the player of the match.
Major Pawan Ghimere, president of Cricket Association of Blind and former captain of National Blind Cricket Team verified that the six was the first ever six in Nepal’s blind cricket history.
Pawan, told that the players have been scoring more runs, especially boundaries.He attributes this to last year’s World Cup Exposure. The improvement in batting was quite evident in the first day as there were plenty of other shots than just typical sweeps.
In the other match played on Tuesday, Defending champions Lumbini defeated Nepal Army by 54 runs. Lumbini scored 176 runs for loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs. Shankar Regmi top scored for Lumbini with 82 runs and Ram Parsad Poudel made 21. Ramesh Baniya from Army took 4 wickets.
Lumbini then restricted Army to 122 runs in 19.1 over thanks to Ram Parsad’s five wickets.
Saturday’s Fixture
Banke vs. Kanchanpur
Army vs. Kaski
This tournament is also serves as the selection for the upcoming World Cup for the Blind to be held in South Africa in November.
