Defending champion Region No 1 Biratnagar confirmed a berth in the final of the fourth Birendra Memorial National League cricket tournament registering an emphatic 61-run victory over Region No 4 Bhairahawa here today at the TU Cricket Stadium.
Mehboob Alam scored a century – only third in the tournament’s history after Raju Khadka (151*) and Binod Das (115*) – to help his team amass 220/6 in allotted 41 overs. He also took two wickets to end Bhairahawa’s innings in 159 in 39.3 overs.
Two-time finalist Bhairahawa’s berth in the final depends upon the last league match between Region No 3 Kathmandu and Region No 5 Nepalgunj. If Kathmandu wins the match by a large margin, then Kathmandu enters the final in expense of Bhairahawa.
It was a Mehboob day all round as the opener scored a chanceless run-a-ball century. His brilliant knock included 10 boundaries and five sixes. Mehboob, who had scored an amazing 256 in the district-level selection match a month ago, returned pavilion after giving a catch to Raju Khadka at short mid-wicket while trying to loft a Dipesh Khatri delivery.
Yashwant Subedi partnered Mehboob for a century opening stand. He edged Bijay Thapa delivery to wicketkeeper Govinda Pradhan after scoring personal 36 in 85 balls. He could have gone earlier if Govinda hadn’t dropped him when he was on 9. Besides them, captain Dipendra Chaudhary got 20 and Unil Shrestha 12. Bhairahawa’s bowling was not to the mark today as they gave away 31 extra runs.
In reply, Bhairahawa got a worst start as Mehboob got two openers cheaply. Mehboob took a wicket each in his second and third over to bring down the opponent to 11/2. Then in 11th over, Santosh Baral took two wickets in two balls to make it 36/4. His prize wickets were Shakti Gauchan and Raju Khadka.
By the end of 18 overs, Bhairahawa were clearly losing at 57/6 but 68-run partnership between Amit Shrestha and Dipesh Khatri cut down the margin. Dipesh topscored with 36 before being run out by Raj Kumar Pradhan a over after Amit (34) was bowled by Raj Kumar.
Lakpa Lama also claimed two wickets while Dipendra trapped last man Amrit Bhattarai in the third ball of 40th over to end the Bhairahawa’s innings.