Raju Stars in Kathmandu’s Win

Region No 3 Kathmandu registered a 81-run victory over Region No 2 Birgunj on Sunday in the match that saw may new landmarks achieved in the Springwood National League Cricket Tournament.

Sharad Vesawkar his 83, Kathmandu’s best ever score, and partnered Gyanendra Malla for event’s best fourth wicket partnership as the home team scored 203/7 in 50 overs. Raju Basnet returned with career best mark that also made the first bowler to take 50 wickets in the national league to bowl out Birgunj for 122 in 40 overs.

Kathmandu’s decision to bat first at the TU Cricket Ground looked a bad one when they lost early three wickets including that of captain Paresh Lohani (4) and Dipendra Chaudhary (18) to Binod Das. But Sharad, who played 152 balls and hit five fours and two sixes, and Gyanendra, who scored 61 off 98 balls with five fours, partnered 146 runs – the second best partnership for any wicket and best for fourth – to put the team out of danger.

The best partnership in the national league is unbeaten 150 between Raju Khadka and Bijaya Thapa of Bhairahawa in 2004 while the previous best fourth wicket partnership was 108 by Yunil Shrestha and Anish Aryal of Biratnagar in 2004. Sharad’s score was also best for Kathmandu beating 80 not out by Paresh in 2006.

Binod took one more to return with figure of 4/27 while none other bowlers impressed from Birgunj. For Kathmandu, it was all Raju.
He took five middle-order wickets as Birgunj went down to 96/8 from 57/2 – one wicket falling as run-out after Raman Shrestha and Paras Khadka each had grabbed a wicket. He gave away 15 runs in 10 over spell that included four maidens.

For Birgunj, it was Hasim Ansari who topscored with 25, while Sanjam Regmi (15) and Sameer Thapa (14) made some contributions. On Monday, Birgunj plays Nepalgunj at TU while Kathmandu meets Baitadi at Institute of Engineering Ground.