Biratnagar defeated Region No 5 Nepalgunj by nine wickets at the Pulchowk Cricket Grounds while Kathmandu thrashed Region No 2 Birgunj in a record-breaking match by 62 runs. [break]
Kathmandu captain Paras Khadka chose to bat first. Kathmandu put up 194 runs in the limited 20 overs losing five wickets. Kathmandu´s total and margin of victory are records in the national league.
Openers Paresh Lohani and Sanjay Shrestha gave a first wicket partnership of 58 runs and the middle-order chipped in to put up a huge total. Lohani struck 32 while Shrestha struck 28 runs off 16 balls.
Man-of-the-match Dipendra Chaudhary struck 68 runs off 45 balls including five sixes and two boundaries while captain Khadka scored 47 off 21 balls.
Binod Das, Sanjam Regmi, Raj Mohammad and Yasin Hawari took a wicket apiece for Birgunj.
Following the huge total, Birgunj were limited to 132/6 in the limited 20 overs. Even though Dipendra Shah struck 47 runs and Mohammad Hasin scored 33 runs, they could not stop Kathmandu from sealing a 62-run victory.
In the first match of the day, Nepalgunj skipper Mahesh Chhetri chose to bat first after winning the toss but his decision proved to be fatal. Nepalgunj put up a small total of 72 runs in 20 overs losing nine wickets. Chhetri scored 38 runs from 62 balls while no other batsman could reach double digits.
Mehboob Alam and Manjeet Shrestha took 2 wickets each to limit Nepalgunj to a small total.
Biratnagar chased the small total in 12.1 overs losing a wicket during the proceeding. Biratnagar lost Mehboob Alam in the fifth ball of the first over when he was batting at 6 runs.
Sunny Pun and captain Pushpa Thapa were unbeaten on 35 and 29 runs respectively when Biratnagar sealed the victory. Captain Thapa, who also claimed a wicket, was adjudged man-of-the-match.
Kathmandu, Nepalgunj win again in women´s T20
Region No 3 Kathmandu and Region No 5 Nepalgunj registered their second consecutive victories in the Wai Wai Women´s Twenty20 National Cricket Tournament at the TU Ground on Saturday.
Kathmandu beat Region No 1 Biratnagar by five runs while Nepalgunj outplayed Region No 2 Birgunj by 10 wickets. It was the second loss for both the losing sides.
Kathmandu scored 72/9 in 20 overs with Sarita Magar (27) and Neera Rajopadhyay (16) being the only two batswomen to reach double figures. They benefited from 18 extras.
For Biratnagar, Rubina Chhetri grabbed four wickets (4/7) and Anu Agrawal took two (2/6).
Chhetri nearly grabbed victory for the eastern side scoring 14 off 11 balls with three fours but fell seven runs short of victory. Her inning came after an early debacle that saw six wickets falling for 33 runs.
Neera, Geeta Chudal and Sarita took two wickets each. Rubina was named player of the match.
In the other match, Nepalgunj had an easy victory over Birgunj. Birgunj scored 64 in 18.4 overs with only Kritu Dahal (13) and Usha Bhujel (10) reaching two-digit scores. Sita Rana, Nary Thapa and Samana Pun grabbed two wickets each.
Nepalgunj´s chase completed in 12.2 overs without any wicket falling as Sita scored 18 off 48 balls and Manisha Rawal got 8 not out. Birgunj gave away 39 extras.
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