Ajay Rajbanshi will probably sleep with his man of the match trophy this night because not every cricketer is as lucky as him. Morang’s right-arm medium pace made a dream debut at national level here today at the TU Cricket Ground.
He took five wickets in the Wai Wai Under-19 National Cricket Tournament against Region No 2 Birgunj helping his team Region No 1 Biratnagar complete a thumping victory to top the group.
With the victory, Biratnagar topped Group B and will meet Group A runners-up Region No 4 Bhairahawa in semifinal on Friday. Birgunj will take on Region No 3 Kathmandu on Thursday in the other semifinal.
Ajay, who came in as the first-change bowler, took five wickets in his six-over spell giving away only five runs. Birgunj could only manage 75 runs in 28.2 overs. In reply, Suraj Timilsina took four wickets but that was not enough to stop Biratnagar from reaching the target in 24 overs.
Opener Ashish Lama topscored for the winners with 33 runs in 44 balls and shared a 56-run stand with Pawan Das. Pawan stayed till the end for his 19 runs. The opening pair not only shared the match-winning partnership but also luck as Birgunj fielders dropped at least three catches.
Yashwant Subedi, Laxman Shrestha and Puspa Thapa didn’t stay long. Suraj returned with the figure of 7-2-18-4 as Pawan guided Biratnagar home with Ratan Rauniyar.
Earlier, Kaniska Chaugai gave a good start to Birgunj but regular fall of wickets marred the progress. Kaniska made 26 off 54 and was caught at mid-on off Ajaya. Ram Naresh Yadav made 10 and Suraj got 12 for Birgunj. None other got two-digit mark.
Besides man of the match Ajay, Ratan took two wickets. Pasang Lama, Chitra Bista and Angel Acharya each took one for Biratnagar.