With four clubs now in the Nepal Premier League (NPL) playoffs, the matches to be held on Wednesday at the picturesque Kirtipur Cricket Ground will undoubtedly offer a great deal of excitement and delight to Nepali cricket fans as well as cricket enthusiasts from other countries.
As all national franchise cricket matches are broadcast by renowned sports channels- Star Sports- as well as the channels on YouTube, fans all over the world can easily access live streaming of these matches. This has undoubtedly increased excitement for all cricket stakeholders in Nepal.
The opening match of the NPL playoffs will take place on Wednesday at 9 am between third-place Chitwan Rhinos and fourth-place Karnali Yaks. It will be an eliminator match, which means that the winner will face the loser of the qualifier between Sudurpaschim Royals and Janakpur Bolts.
The victor of the first qualifier will storm into the final, while the defeated team will face the winner of the eliminator in the second qualifier, which will take place on Thursday at the same venue. The NPL journey of the losing team in the elimination round will come to an end.
Rhinos beat Bolts by 32 runs
On Saturday at 12 pm, the final of the first edition of the NPL will kick off.
No doubt, the four teams in the playoffs will go to any length to reach the final in the NPL's inaugural season which started on November 30 and which generated widespread attention both in the country and abroad.
Based on their performance so far, the top two teams, Sudurpaschim Royals and Janakpur Bolts, are expected to go to the finals because they have outperformed the other teams thus far. However, the NPL format allows one of the two teams- Chitwan Rhinos or Karnali Yaks in the eliminator round, to fight it out to claim the title. Since cricket, especially T20, offers all possibilities to unfold, no one can predict for sure who will be the winners or losers among the four teams.
Sudurpaschim's players, including captain Dipendra Sing Airee, Binod Bhandari, Md Aarif Sheikh, Abinash Bohara, Narendra Saud, Khadak Bahadur Bohara, and Arjun Kumal, as well as the team's international players, Brandon McMullen, Saif Zaib, Rohan Mustafa, and Scott Kuggeleijn, have the potential to turn the qualifier on its head. Pacer Kuggeleijin leads the game in wicket-taking with 13 in six innings.
Coach Jagat Tamata, who has previously guided several national teams to international success, has the ability to instill a winning attitude in the team. Similarly, Janakpur players coached by Anil Sah have the potential to cause an upset, as they have superb left-arm spinner Lalit Rajbanshi, who has 13 wickets in seven league matches.
Apart from Janakpur skipper Sah, Aasif Sheikh, Sagar Dhakal, Rajesh Pulami, and Nandan Yadav performed well in the league round. They are more than capable of propelling their team towards victory. They have performed admirably for Janakpur this season, under the tutelage of Pubudu Dassanayake, who has led the Nepali national team twice. Under his leadership, players in the NPL have reached unprecedented heights.
Meanwhile, the teams in Wednesday's eliminator- Rhinos and Yaks - too have some talented players on their rosters. Captain Kushal Malla has done an excellent job for the Chitwan Rhinos, as have Deepak Bohara, Rijan Dhakal, Santosh Karki, and Dipesh Shrestha. The squad's overseas players, including seasoned English all-rounder Ravi Bopara, Luc Benkenstein (England), Hassan Eisakhil (Afghanistan), and Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton (Namibia), gave the team an extra edge.
Captain Sompal Kami is the Karnali Yaks' best hope for victory in the elimination round. Aside from the skills of youthful all-rounder Gulshan Jha, players such as Dev Khanal and Bhuwan Karki may help the squad by bowling and batting. Former Nepali national captain Gyanendra Malla coaches the squad, which also relies heavily on foreign players Babar Hayat (Hong Kong) and Chadwick Walton (West Indies). Shikhar Dhawan, a popular Indian player who played a few league games, will not be present for the eliminator match.
Overall, the two playoff games promise an exhilarating experience for all participants—players, fans, and officials. Cricket fans, who will throng the TU ground in thousands tomorrow, will have fantastic spectacle of cricket.
