KATHMANDU, June 8: Nepal Police Club (NPC) and Tribhuvan Army Club have been crowned as joint champions of the 1st Prime Minister Cup One Day National Cricket Tournament on Thursday.
The two departmental sides were declared joint winners after the final clash at TU Cricket Ground was affected by rain.
Put into bat first after losing the toss, NPC was bowled out for 126 runs in 45.1 overs but the rain halted the match when Army scored seven runs in 2.3 overs losing one wicket.
Meanwhile, after being declared joint winners, both clubs bagged Rs 1.5 million each.
NPC couldn't make a positive start to its innings with its openers Amit Shrestha and Sunil Dhamala building up a partnership of only four runs for the first wicket. However Sunil Dhamala who stroked highest 32 runs off 90 balls built up a 30-run partnership with Dipendra Singh Airee for the third wicket to lift the innings. But losing other batsmen cheaply didn't help. Siddhant Lohani made 20 runs while Kushal Bhurtel contributed 15 runs.
Jitendra Mukhiya was Army's pick of the bowlers as he claimed 4-28 in 8.1 overs while he was supported by Sushan Bhari who took 3-19 in nine overs. Likewise, Sagar Pun claimed two more wickets.
Meanwhile, Army made a disastrous start to its innings with its opener Anil Mandal being dismissed for a duck in Lalit Bhandari's delivery while Mahesh Chhetri made just four runs off nine balls.
Army's Sagar Pun was declared the best player of the tournament and was rewarded with Rs 100,000. Likewise, NPC's Sushan Bhari who claimed 14 wickets throughout the tournament was declared the best bowler while Western Region's Saurav Khanal was announced as best batsman. Saurav had made 270 runs in the tournament including 27 sixes. Both the best bowler and batsman were rewarded with Rs 50,000 each. Simlarly, Saurav's teammate Bipin Khatri was declared as rising player and received Rs 25,000.
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