LALITPUR: Sainik Awasiya Mahavidhyala (SAM) and DAV School entered the semi-finals of the sixth SNB Memorial Twenty20 Cricket Tournament here at the Pulchowk Engineering grounds today.
Due to technical problems both the matches were reduced 18 overs, and in the first SAM defeated Dreamland by 45 runs, while DAV eased past Ideal English School by 44 runs to reach the last four.
Sujan Basnet struck a brisk half century as SAM piled up a mammoth 169-9 in their allotted 18 overs after they elected to bat first. In reply, Dreamland could only muster up 124-6.
Sujan was the star of the day smashing all over the park to score 87 runs in just 53 balls with 15 boundaries. Ayush Thapa (17) and Bikash Limbu (11) were the only other batsmen to score in double digits for SAM.
Mohammad Azam picked up four wickets for Dreamland, while Roman Tandukar had two victims and Sanualla Akbar and Sudin KC took one apiece. Raju Basnet made an unbeaten 61 from 45 deliveries with nine boundaries but his efforts were not enough to see Dreamland go through. Mohammad (14) and Milan Karki (12) scored in double figures. Sujan, Milan Karki and Ayush took one wicket apiece for SAM.
Later in the day, electing to bat first DAV were dismissed in the last ball of their innings for 130 runs, and after some discipline bowling bundled out Ideal for 86 in 16.1 overs.
Ayush Gautam grabbed two wickets, while Saurav Bajaj, Ritesh Sharma and Ashish Jha took one wicket each for DAV. Divya Chalise (22), Darshan Chalise (18) and Pratik Thakuri (17) were the notable contributors for Ideal.
Earlier, Ashish struck a 38-ball 43 with eight boundaries and Srijendra Acharya made a patient 31-ball 30 to help DAV cross triple figure mark.
Ayush also made 13 runs. Pranaya Dahal was the pick of the Ideal bowlers with 4-16 from 4 overs, while Nishant Joshi took two wickets and Divya and Ashish Jaiswal grabbed one wicket apiece.
