At the match held at TU grounds, Birgunj won the toss and elected to bat. Birgunj posted 145 runs in 45.4 overs. Kathmandu conceded 33 runs as extras. Binay Kumar Shah and man of the match Avinash Karn topscored for Birgunj with 25 runs apiece. Binay’s innings featured five hits to the fence for four.
Prithu Baskota claimed 3 wickets for Kathmandu while Rupesh Shrivastav, Ritesh Singh,Jeevan Bhattarai and Raman Shrestha claimed 1 wicket each.
Kathmandu went about chasing the score in an unhurried way. Indra Kamal tried to solidify Kathmandu’s innings but his opening partner Bijay Gautam was caught leg before in bowling by Avinash Karn, which initiated Kathmandu’s batting collapse.
Captain Gyanendra Malla tried to steady the innings but a rain scare saw him make an all out assault before being out caught by Avinash Karn off Hasim Ansari.
Rom Shrestha topscored for Kathmandu with 34. He was bowled out by Avinash Karn.
Kathmandu was bundled out for 127 in 40.2 overs. Jattashankar Sarraf took 3 wickets for Birgunj. Bibek Dali and Hasim Ansari claimed two scalps.
Kathmandu captain Gyanendra Malla said, “We played to be ahead of target in 20 overs because of the rain. The weather let us down.”
“This win is a result of our confidence and effort. Our opponent [Nepalgunj] cannot be underestimated. An ordinary team cannot reach the final”, skipper of the winning side, Akash Pariyar, said.
In another semi final, region number 5 Nepalgunj defeated region number 4 Bhairahawa by 22 runs and booked a place in Sunday´s final. Nepalgunj captain Mohammad Sahid Rija won the toss and elected to bat. Though they lost wickets at regular intervals, they posted 101 runs before being all out.
Anupam Singh topscored for Nepalgunj with a finely made 52 runs. Bhairahawa pacer Amrit Bhattarai took four wickets.
In reply, Bhairahawa bowed out to Nabin Sahi as he took a match-winning 6 wickets. Sailesh Srivastava showed some defiance and made the highest 29 runs for his team but it was not enough, as the whole team bundled out for 79 runs.
Shahi was adjudged man of the match for his 6 wickets haul.
The final of the Wai Wai National U-19 tournament will be played on Sunday at TU grounds, Kirtipur
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