The contest of the ongoing Springwood National T20 Cricket Tournament now remains in two matches – one is obviously the final and the other is the match between Region No 1 Biratnagar and Region No 4 Bhairahawa – who both with victories on Sunday play the last league match on Tuesday as the semifinal.
On Sunday, Biratnagar defeated Nepalgunj by eight wickets and Bhairahawa defeated Baitadi by three wickets to finish two three wins from four matches. It was third loss in as many matches for the far western teams.
Ajay Rajbanshi emerged hero for second time for the eastern side with an all-round performance. Choosing to bat first, Nepalgunj scored 75 in 19.1 overs with only Tajuddin Halwai (23 off 46), Subendu Pandey (17 off 17, a six) and Nasir Ansari (10 off 17) giving notable contribution.
Mehboob Alam, Ajay, Raj Kumar Pradhan and Kundan Singh each grabbed two wickets for Biratnagar.
Biratnagar also faced early trouble losing both openers – Mehboob (10 of four balls) and Sunny Pun in the first over bowled by Nasir. But then onwards, Ajay (27 off 43) and Pushpa Thapa (36 off 38) made no mistakes and took the team home.
Earlier in the morning, Baitadi won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 76/9 in 20 overs. Contributions came from Pradeep Airee (20 off 18, two sixes) and Prem Chaudhary (13) along with 13 gifted runs as extras.
Captain Shakti Gauchan led the bowling for Bhairahawa finishing 3/7 in four overs while Rahul BK took two wickets despite being expensive giving away 37 runs. Amrit Bhattarai (0/7) and Lal Bahadur Adhikari (0/7) were also economical bowling tight line and not letting Baitadi batsmen score.
Bhairahawa did not have a great start losing two wickets for a run; and then four while the scoreboard was reading 14. They lost two more to go down 28/6 in ninth over with Chandra Saud (3/10) and Dhirendra Chand (2/15) casting havoc.
Sagar Pun should be credited for the innings who as opener anchored the whole innings with 33 off 50 balls with a four and a six. When he was out, to Bhuwan Karki, his team needed just two runs to victory.