Biratnagar elected to bat first after winning the toss. Mehboob Alam gave Biratnagar a good start, scoring 17 runs off 14 deliveries, in a knock which saw one boundary and a six. His opening partner, Sunny Pun, batted solidly too and hit a run-a-ball 37 runs. Lower order batsman Kundan Singh then scored 21 runs off 21 balls to build Biratnagar´s total. But after Singh´s departure from the crease, no one from Biratnagar could put up a resistance to Kathmandu´s bowling, and at the end of the stipulated overs, the team managed to put up only 109 on the board, for the loss of 9 wickets.
Abhaya Rana, the most successful bowler for Kathmandu, sent 4 batsmen packing, Raju Basnyat and Dipendra Chaudhary took two wickets each, and Rom Shrestha took one wicket.
In reply, in-form batsman Paresh Lohani and his partner Dipendra Chaudhary made a mockery of Biratnagar´s bowling and hammered out an 87-run first-wicket partnership, which ensured that Kathmandu would come away with a big win. Lohani scored a classy 57 runs off 47 deliveries, including 4 hits to the fences and 2 sixes. Chaudahry was a little slower than Lohani, scoring 31 runs in 40 balls.
Raj Kumar Pradhan took both these batsmen´s wickets, but Pradhan´s effort came tad too late: Sanjay Shrestha and Paras Khadka easily compiled the remaining runs that Kathmandu had set out to total. Abhaya Rana was declared the man of the match for his match-winning 4 wickets.
Unlike the first match, the second match of the day was a very close one. Binod Das, the skipper of region number 2, Birgunj, won the toss and elected to bat. Although Birgunj´s first-wicket partnership stood for 6.3 overs, in which the openers scored 45 runs, the team´s other batsmen couldn´t capitalize on the solid start made, and the entire team could only come up with a meager 82 runs before all the batsmen were bundled out in 19.2 overs.
Suraj Timalsena scored the highest runs, 25, off 22 deliveries, including 4 hits to the fences. Aakash Singh Pariyar contributed 15 runs, and Sanjam Regmi chipped in a valuable 13 runs off 11 deliveries. The innings extra 12 runs were also proved handy in lifting Birgunj´s total to 82 runs.
Rahul Kumar B K was most successful with the ball for Bhairahawa; he took 4 wickets while giving away just 13 runs. And Basanta Regmi and Shakti Gauchan had 2 scalps each, while Lal Bahadu Adhikari claimed one wicket.
Chasing the target of 83 was proved to be a difficult task for Bhairahawa, as they lost wickets at regular intervals. One-down batsman Faizal Khan, opener Rijan Prajoo and Aakash Gupta were the only batsman to reach to double figures. Faiza Khan scored 21 runs off 33 deliveries, a knock that did not feature a single boundary. Likewise, Prajoo to failed to hit any boundaries to get to his 13-run total. Aakash Gupta´s contribution of 12, however, did include two boundaries.
But despite the drought of boundaries, the match itself was decided by a hit to the fences: eleventh man Lal bahadur Adhikary hit the winning boundary off the first Binod Das ball he faced, and that hit led to Bhairahawa´s win, with one wicket with 3 balls to spare. For Birgunj, Anil Mandal put on a valiant effort, taking 4 wickets, Sanjam Regmi, two and Suraj Timalsena, one. Rahul Kumar BK was named the man of the match. With the loss, Birgunj´s are now out of the running.
The winner of the Biratnagar-Bhairahawa match will book its place in the final, by filling in the one slot that´s been left after Kathmandu booked its place with its win.
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