Birgunj beat Region No. 5 Nepalgunj by four wickets as Avinash rescued his team scoring 50 not out while chasing 195/6 at Pulchowk Cricket Grounds. In another match of the day at BSAM Grounds Bhaktapur, Region No. 3 Kathmandu defeated Region No. 6 Baitadi by six wickets.
After four days of the round robin league, Birgunj are atop the points table with six points from three games while Region No. 4 Bhairahawa is second with four points from two matches. Nepalgunj and Kathmandu have a win each from two matches.
At Pulchowk, Birgunj, chasing Nepalgunj´s 195, was boosted by four scintilating performances. After the early loss of Chakra Prakash (3), Rahul Pratap Singh and Chandan Jha added 61runs in second wickets.
Rahul Pratap Singh of Birgunj bowls.Dipesh Shrestha
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Rahul scored 28 off 47 balls while Chandan got 22 off 37 before they fell in the space of an over, making it 78/3 in 14 overs. Three more wickets - Sudeep Chaudhary (2), Aman Yadav (6) and Abhisekh Singh (9) fell quickly as the team went down to 118/6.
Avinash and Gopal Singh then batted with matured responsibility to take the team home. Avinash remained not out at 50 off 64 balls with six fours while Gopal got 32 off just 26 balls with five boundaries as they reached the target in 34.5 overs.
Earlier, Nepalgunj won the toss and elected to bat. With opener Rikesh Shakya (34), Rupal Nepali (32 not out), Inamuddin (27), Prajwal Shahi (21) and Sanam Shrestha (18) contributing, they reached a good total of 195/6 in 40 overs.
At BSAM Grounds, Kathmandu scored the tournament´s second-highest total so far but had a hard time defending it. Winning the toss, they raced to 109/1 in 23.4 overs - thanks to two half-century partnerships. Sharad Khadka, who topscored in the innings with 51 off 74 balls with six fours, dominated proceedings.
Captain Nupur Pandey got 45 off 47 in the innings that saw all top five batsmen getting runs - opener Dilman Rokka (22), Milan Thapa (28), Bijaya Rokaya (26). They got 206/9 in 40 overs. Arjun Chapagain, Jagdish Chand and Sameer Nagarkoti took two wickets each for Baitadi.
Baitadi batsmen took the match down the wire despite losing opening Dipendra Chand on the second ball of the innings. Tapendra Saud (26), Bikram Thalal (33) and Jagdish (35) took the team to 113/2 in 17 overs.
At that point, they lost the momentum, losing five quick wickets for 14 runs. Sujan Basnet (3/38) and Rishab Rajbhandari (2/42) took the wickets and see-sawed the match to their side.
Birendra Bista came with a purpose and nearly got his team home, firing 47 off just 43 balls, hitting four boundaries and four sixes and partnering 64 runs with Chandan Rawal (14) for the eighth wicket. But Chandan´s run-out and his fall, off Nupur´s ball, helped the hosts defend the score.
Nupur was named man of the match.
On Friday, Region No. 1 Biratnagar plays Baitadi while Bhairahawa will lock horns with Birgunj.
