Madhes ends group-stage with win while Binod, Basir shine for Army

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Jan. 29: Madhes Province collected 12 points to end its group-stage campaign of the PM Cup Men’s National Cricket Tournament after winning its final group match against Lumbini at Mulpani International Cricket Ground on Sunday.

Nepal Police, which has played only six matches, is in the top with 12 points followed by Bagmati, the first team to play all its group matches. Madhes is now in the third position. Nevertheless, with other teams having some more matches in hand, Bagmati and Madhes have slim chances of finishing as top four teams at the end of the group stage.

Having given to bat first, Madhes’ batters did not perform at their best against Lumbini as the team was bundled out in the 42nd over at 169 runs. Captain Harishankar Sah, opener for Madhes, departed after opening his account with a single and his partner Anil Sah could only add 16 runs off 34 balls to reclaim his position as the batsman with the most runs in the tournament.

Mayan Yadav, Pawan Sarraf and Arniko Yadav added 22, 26 and 38 runs respectively followed by a 26-run-inning by Abhisekh Tiwari to take the team to 169.

Bir Magar took four wickets and Avishek Gautam claimed three to pack Madhes.

Nevertheless, Lumbini could not chase the low target as six batsmen fell victim to Pradip Paswan alone. Paswan bowled four batsmen – Birat Bhandari (1 off 15), captain Sushant Thapa (6 off 13), Dilsad Ali (22 off 37) and Krishna Karki (4 off 6) – while two others – Mrinal Gurung (21 off 50) and Nirmal Gurung (3 off 3) – were caught by fielders. 

Wicketkeeper-batsman Prajjwol Thapa was Lumbini’s highest scorer with 62 off 79. He was caught in the 39th over by Mayan Yadav in the over bowled by Abhishekh Tiwari. Bir Magar (5 off 6) was also caught by Yadav as Tiwari claimed the final wicket of Lumbini in the 41st over to win the match by a bare margin of nine runs.

On the other hand, Binod Bhandari and Basir Ahamad showcased quality batting at TU Cricket Ground as they partnered to take the Tribhuwan Army Club from 110/5 in the 22nd over to 279/5 at the end of the first inning against Karnali. 

Dipendra Rawat took two wickets while Prakash Jaishi, Dinesh Adhikari and Diwan Pun claimed one each for Karnali. 

While Bhandari was able to touch the 100-run mark and register his second century in the current edition of the tournament, Ahamad fell short of only two runs. 

Bhandari stayed not out at 100 off 132 with Ahamad on 98 runs after facing only 92 deliveries.

Bhim Sharki and Kushal Malla also added 25 and 21 runs for the team respectively. 

Karnali struggled in the chase as it lost six wickets by the 15th over. They were bundled out by the end of the 29th over as Army won by a wide margin of 164 runs.

Openers Rabindra Shahi, also Karnali’s captain, and Nischal Rawal added 12 runs each. Wicketkeeper-batsman Arjun Gharti was bowled for a golden duck by Bibek Yadav while Aditya Shah departed after scoring only 1 run in 20 deliveries.

Himanshu Shahi was the highest scorer for Karnali with 19 runs off 22 balls followed by Diwan Pun’s 18 off 14.

Bibek took a total of three wickets alongside Kushal Malla. Sompal Kami also bagged two while Shahab Alam pocketed one for Army.

Koshi and Lumbini are competing in Kirtipur and APF and Sudur Pashchim in Mulpani on Monday.