Birgunj thrashed Region No 7 (Janakpur) by nine wickets at the Tribhuvan University cricket ground in Kirtipur and Pokhara beat Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) by 98 runs at the Pulchowk Engineering College ground in Lalitpur in Group A matches.
Birgunj collected six points from four matches, while Pokhara opened its account with two points after its first victory in three matches. Tribhuvan Army Club is leading the group table with six points due to superior net run rate compared to Birgunj while Nepalgunj has four points from four matches and is in the third position. Biratnagar is fourth and Pokhara fifth as both have two points each. Janakpur has lost three matches in a row and is at the bottom of the table without any points.
In its fourth match, Birgunj chased 123 runs target in 15 overs with nine wickets in hand as unbeaten Amit Shrestha and Hasim Ansari completed half centuries. Hasim scored 58 runs off 28 balls, hitting 13 boundaries, while Amit added 50 runs facing 44 balls that included eight fours.
Earlier, Janakpur was bundled out for 122 runs in 39.2 overs after Yashin Hawari of Birgunj bagged four wickets giving away only 16 runs in 10 overs that included three maiden overs as well.
Sunil Sah (32), Himanshu Dutta (24), Hari Shankar Sah (22) and Gopal Singh (21) were the major run scorers for Janakpur.
In another match of the day, Pokhara bowled Nepalgunj for 136 runs in 36.5 overs after posting 235 runs target.
Nishchal Pandey's all-round performance was key to Pokhara's first win in the tournament as he bagged four wickets of Nepalgunj giving away only 14 runs in 5.5 overs.
Earlier, winning the toss and opting to bat first, Pokhara completed 50 overs scoring 234/8 as Nishchal topscored 41 runs. Sudip Paudel (39), Bidhan Shrestha (37) and Karan KC (27) were other batsmen to help Pokhara put up the fighting total.
On Saturday, Janakpur will face Biratnagar at TU ground, while Army Club will play against Pokhara.
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