Region No 3 Kathmandu won third match in row defeating Region No 6 Baitadi by 13 runs as Region No 2 won their first match of the Springwood National T20 Cricket Tournament at the TU Cricket Ground.
Kathmandu scored 137/6 and restricted spirited Baitadi for 124/7 – thanks to Dipendra Chaudhary’s all-round performance. In Birgunj’s victory, Anil Mandal did the same to restrict Region No 5 Nepalgunj for 85/8 to register a 15-run win after his team scored 100/9.
Birgunj won the toss and elected to bat first. Though it lost Shiva Tandukar early, captain Binod Das and Anil took the team forward scoring slowly. The knock from Anil (21 off 31 balls) and Binod Das (31 off 37) helped the team, who had lost its earlier two matches, to three digits despite seeing a furry of run-outs, five of them, later in the innings as batsmen try to accelerate.
Meeraj Ansari, Ranjeet Sijapati, Sandeep Shrestha and Subendu Pandey each grabbed a wicket for Nepalgunj.
The far-western team was in trouble early on losing two early wickets to go down 3/2 with Binod maintaining a tight line.
Aviansh Karn got Mahesh Chhetri (1) and Tajuddin Halwai (0) was run-out as Binod bowled four overs giving only eight runs. Rupesh Sharma (12), Subendu Pandey (22) and Anupam Singh (25*) tried to stabilize the inning but late batsmen failed to cope with spins. Suraj Timilsina (3/13), Anil Mandal (2/18) and Sanjan Regmi (1/12) ensured they lose momentum while chasing a lowly total.
Earlier in the morning, Kathmandu, the leader in the event, scored another win. Chosing to bat first. They had a good opening partnership of 46 runs between Paresh Lohani and Subash Khakurel. Subash went on eighth over scoring 14 off 19 balls to Prem Budal who after four overs also grabbed Paresh, who topscored in the innings with 38 off 36 balls.
Dipendra Chaudhary got 24 off 22 with two sixes before becoming the second victim to Bhuwan Karki, who before him got Raju Basnet (6). Two quick wickets to Naresh Budhayer meant Kathmandu was down to 91/6 from 75/1.
Paras Khadka played a captain’s knock of 35 not out in only 17 balls with three fours and a six to take his team to a competitive total and later his knock proved vital for victory.
Baitadi too had a good start with Prem Chaudhary (25 off 28) and Binod Bhandari (24 off 17) adding 42 runs in six overs. It was change in bowling that brough happiness for Kathmandu as seamer Pramod Basnet grabbed three wickets, including both openers and Kuldeep Khadka (5), to bring down the Baitadi spirit.
After scoring 42 in first six overs, they scored half of that in next five overs and Kathmandu bowlers clasped around them. Captain Dhirendra Chand’s 23 off 17 and Naresh’s 13 off 11 too wasted as Kathmandu did not let others score.
Dipendra took three wickets late in the innings to keep on pressure and the match went to Kathmandu.