In the last league match of Group B on Thursday at TU Ground Kirtipur, Bhairahawa maintained its winning streak and advanced into the final defeating Region No 8 Pokhara by five wickets. Baitadi has already secured place for the final as the winner of group A. [break]
Winning the toss, Pokhara opted to bat first and managed to score 116 runs losing all the wickets in 39 overs. Bhairahawa surpassed the target in 33 overs losing five wickets.
Bhairahawa bowlers did not allow any of the Pokhara batsmen to remain in the crease for longer period. Pokhara lost wickets in regular intervals. Keshab Khatri was the highest scorer with 31 runs off 59 balls while Sangharsh Poudel scored 25 runs off 24 balls for Pokhara.
Shankar Rana, Iklakh Ahmed and Rupesh Bastola grabbed two wickets each while Khu Bahadur Disuwa and Rahul Bhattarai took a wicket each for Bhairahawa.
Chasing the modest total, Bhairahawa did not start well. Bhairahawa continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. Opener Nurdhoj Sen was the highest scorer with 27 runs off 64 balls while Manish Gurung was unbeaten on 19 runs off 30 balls.
Pankaj Darai, Sushil Kandel and Santosh Upadhyay took a wicket each.
In another match played at Institute of Engineering Ground, Pulchowk, defending champion Region No 2 Birgunj scored highest total of the tournament and thumped Region No 3 Kathmandu by 141 runs. Birgunj made 277/7 in 40 overs and bowled out Kathmandu for 136 runs in 30.1 overs.
Birgunj lost the first wicket for 21 runs, but Aquab Ansari and Nitesh Thakur shared 135-run partnership for the second wicket. Thakur gave away his wicket with 42 runs off 61 balls. Ansari scored 86 runs off 94 balls with 12 boundaries.
Tarik Ansari and Alfaj Mansuri shared 63-run partnership for the sixth wickets and guided the team to a huge total. Ansari scored 43 runs off 29 balls while Mansuri was not out on 42 runs off 24 balls.
Shahid Mohammad grabbed four wickets while Raj Kumar Karki took two wickets.
Chasing the huge target of 278 runs, Kathmandu failed to shine with bat. Birgunj bowlers did not allow the Kathmandu batsmen to settle in the crease for longer period. Shahid Mohammad was the highest scorer with 44 runs off 55 balls.
Anand Gupta and Pranay Das grabbed three wickets each while Samsad Ansari took two wickets.
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