KATHMANDU, Dec 23: Dipendra Singh Airee’s ‘captain’s knock’ scoring 55 runs from 50 deliveries smashing seven fours delivered first win of the tournament for Chitwan Tigers. Lalitpur Patriots succumbed to their third consecutive defeat of the EPL 2017 after winning the first game. Both teams have two points on the table trailed by Pokhara, Bhairahawa, and Biratnagar.
Praveen Gupta, the Uttar Pradesh player, stayed unbeaten scoring his first fifty of the tournament along with picking up two wickets earlier in the match. Sunny Patel, who replaced Yogesh Nagar in the playing XI for Patriots, dismissed three Chitwan batsmen at the start of the chase reducing Tigers to four for 33 runs at one stage. Airee combined with Parveen then shared an 81 runs partnership to seal the match. Praveen smashed three fours and two sixes in his 56 securing the match for Tigers.
Lalitpur’s spin duo Lalit Rajbanshi and Sandeep Lamichhane picked up a wicket each in their combined spell of eight overs that included a maiden conceding 39 runs.
Earlier, Chitwan Tigers picked up five wickets conceding only four runs in last two overs of the match to limit Lalitpur Patriots for 130 runs in their 20 overs. At one point, Patriots were 126/5 in 18.2 overs. Indian batsman Jaykishan Kolsawala top-scored for Patriots with 31 runs which included three fours.
Yogendra Singh Karki registered a four-wicket-haul in EPL to help Tigers restrict Patriots to paltry score. He dismissed Gyanendra Malla for 10 runs following up with wickets of Subodh Bhati and Sunny Patel. Subodh Bhati smashed three sixes in his cameo of eight deliveries scoring 23 runs.
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Tigers’ Indian recruits Pramesh Kumar and Praveen Gupta chipped in with two wickets each. Pace bowler Kamal Singh Airee picked up one wicket.
Earlier, Lalitpur Patriots won the toss and elected to bat first. Opening batsman Shankar Rana who replaced Pawan Sarraf in the XI scored 27 runs facing 37 deliveries. Yogesh Nagar was replaced by Gujarat player Sunny Patel in the playing XI.
Match Summary:
Lalitpur Patriots (Toss) 130 all out (20 Ov)
J Kolsawla 31 (31) 3 fours
Shankar Rana 27 (37) 4 fours
Subodh Bhati 23 (8) 3 sixes
Y Karki 4-0-31-4
P Gupta 4-0-16-2
P Kumar 4-0-35-2
Chitwan Tigers 132/5 (19.2 Ov)
Praveen Gupta 56* (43) 4 fours, 2 sixes
Dipendra Singh Airee 55 (50) 7 fours
Sunny Patel 4-0-23-3
S Lamichhane 4-0-19-1
Lalit Rajbanshi 4-1-20-1
