Kathmandu- A five-fer from Prajjwal Shahi and an impressive innings of 75 runs from Ranbir Singh gave R-5 (Nepalgunj) their third win over Biratnagar in the ongoing senior nationl cricket tournament at Engineering Ground, Pulchowk on Sunday.
Biratnagar posted 224 runs on the board before being all out in 43.4 over after being invited to bat first by Nepalgunj to bat first. Prajjwal Shahi shone with the ball for Nepalgunj picking up a five wicket haul. Biratnagar could have posted more runs had they managed to keep their wickets. They started their batting with a fine opening from Avinash Karna and Ravi Roy who share 75 runs for the first wicket in just 11.4 overs.
Ravi went on to score a fluent 56 runs off 44 balls. His innings included nine fours and a six. Biratnagar went on to loose the plot and soon were reduced to 7/124 in 24.5 overs. Siddhant Lohani and Lakpa Lama then saved some pride for Biratnagar sharing 80 runs for the ninth wicket. Siddhant got out for 46 runs while Lakpa managed 27 runs. Biratnager were bowled out for 224 runs with still five overs remaining.
Nepalgunj had a poor start as they lost their first three wickets with just 41 runs on the board. However, Skipper Subendu Pandey added 84 runs for the fourth wicket with Man of the Match Rajbir Singh to take the match in their favor. Subendu got out for 59 runs but Rajbir carried his innings until his team was safe needing 20 runs off 21 balls. Akash Bista then played a late cameo hitting 18 runs off just 9 balls as Nepalgunj chased the target with 7 balls remaining.
Rajbir’s innings included 10 fours while Akash balste two fours and a six. Nepalgunj are third in the points table in Group A behind Army Club (1st) and Birgunj (2nd). For Nepalgunj to qualify for the semi-finals, they should hope that Birgunj loose to Army Club by a big margin in tomorrow’s match.
Tomorrow’s Matches
Region No. 6 (Baitadi) Vs Region No. 9 (Dhangadhi)
Army Club Vs Region No. 2 (Birgunj)
