Cricnepal/Dhangadi: Pentagon International College defeated defending champion NASA International College by four wickets to lift the trophy of the highest cash prize tournament of Nepal The Hotel Devotee SPA Cup at Anchal Prahari Ground, Dhangadi today.
Winning the toss, NASA opted to bat first but their decision faltered as they were bowled out for just 77 runs in 15.5 overs. NASA lost their first two wickets cheaply at team’s score of 4 and 5 respectively. Number three batsman Abhay Poudel got caught for 6 runs off Mehboob Alam. While Mohammad Sajid was caight by Hasim Ansari off Binod Chhetri for just 1 runs leaving the team’s total to 20/4. The wickets did not stop here. Durga Chaudhary was run out for 6 runs in eighth over.
Rahul Singh who entered as fourth batsman shared a 24 runs partnership with Praveen Joshi for sixth wicket before Joshi got bowled by Kamal Kishore Premi for 10 runs. Rahul with the score of 45 runs off 40 balls remained the top scorer for the team while Pravin at score of 10 was the only other batsman to enter a double digit mark. Rahul hit three boundaries and three sixes. Three of the lower order batsman went for duck.
Man of the final Kamal Kishore took three important wickets conceding only 11 runs off his 2.5 overs while Mehboob and Binod took two wickets each. Santosh Bhatta added one wicket in his account.
The chase looked interesting too with Pentagon losing their opener Mahesh Chhetri and Mehboob Alam for 5 and 9 runs respectively. Naresh Budhayer was the third victim who got caught for just 1 run. 32 runs partnership between Pushpa Thapa and Hasim Ansari handled the innings for Pentagon but Hasim got unlucky to be caught for 10 runs in seventh over.
The match went interesting further after Rahul Singh bowled both Pushpa and Santosh Bhatta for 28 and 1 runs respectively. Pushpa played 23 balls and hit five fours and a six. From the score of 65/6 Anupam Singh and Rajkumar Pradhan took the team to victory with both remaining unbeaten at 13 and 8 runs respectively.
Durgesh Singh, Suresh Guragain and Rahul Singh grabbed two wickets each for NASA.
Man of the final Kishore Kumar Premi won cash prize of Rs. 10,000 with trophy. Mehboob Alam was awarded the best batsman while Suresh Guragain claimed the best bowler award. Mehboob scored 182 runs off four matches with an average of 45.50. Suresh claimed nine wickets from four matches a the economy of 5.47. Both Mehboob and Suresh were awarded with cash prize of Rs. 20,000 each and trophy.
Sanjay Pant from Kailali Multiple College was awarded the best fielder who also took away cash prize of Rs. 20,000 with trophy. Dinesh Thagunna from Aishwarya Vidya Niketan was adjudged the emerging player of the tourmanet. Diesh got trophy and cricket kit bag.
Naresh Budhayer from the winning team was announced the player of the series. Naresh scored 123 runs in four matches at an average of 41.00 while took seven wickets at the economy of 6.17. Naresh was awarded with cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and trophy.
Winner Pentagon were awarded cash prize of Rs. 2,00,000 with trophy while runners up NASA bagged Rs. 1,00,000 along with trophy.
Prizes were distributed by chief guest Chatur Bahadur Chand, vice president of Cricket Association of Nepal(CAN), Dhirendra Sawad(Member of CAN), Mr. Yogendra Bahadur Shahi (President of SPA), Mr. Niranjan Rajbanshi (President of Nepal Sports Journalist Forum) and others.
While speaking at the closing ceremony, from organizers comitte, Subash Shahi thanked all the people involved in making the tournament success. He also added the importance of an international level stadium at Dhangadi. President of SPA, Yogendra Bahadur Shahi also shared his thanks to all the people involved and said we will continue this effort of ours for cricket development.
