Army stays unbeaten in KPT’s group stage

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Mar. 14:Tribhuwan Army Club stayed unbeaten in the group stage of the Koshi Province Trophy. Defeating Armed Police Force (APF) Club by four wickets on Wednesday, Army won all four group-stage matches. 

Army successfully chased the victory-target of 140 runs with nine balls remaining. 

Electing to field first at Baijanath Cricket Ground in Biratnagar, Army bundled out APF for 139 runs in 19.2 overs. Sumit Maharjan was APF’s highest scorer with 33 off 34 and was followed by skipper Bhuvan Karki (25 off 15) and Puran BK (23 off 25).

Sumit Shrestha bagged three wickets, Trit Raj Das took two, and Keshar Ali Ansari and Shahab Alam took one each for Army.

Army started the chase poorly as the team was at 64/4 in 9.4 overs. With two openers – Imran Sheikh (9 off 9) and Santosh Karki (4 off 7) – departing for a paltry, Trit and Ramesh Bhatt departed after scoring 16 and 22 runs respectively.

However, Basir Ahamad and Sandeep Rajali rescued Army. Basir stayed not out at 46 off 39 while Sandeep departed as the fifth wicket after scoring 26 off 15.

Bhuvan Karki and Yagyaman Kumal took two wickets each for APF while Irshad Ahamad also took one.

With the fourth consecutive win, Army stays atop Group A with eight points and has qualified for the semi-final.

Police victorious

In another match of the day between the teams of Group B, Nepal Police defeated Group B leader Lumbini by eight wickets to revive its semi-final hopes. The big margin victory over Bagmati on Thursday could take Police into the knockout round.  With two wins from three matches, Police have now four points and trails at third position behind Sudurpaschim. 

Lumbini, with three wins in three matches, was playing its fourth and final group match against Police. However, Lumbini’s winning streak was ended. On the other hand, Police, with one win in two matches, was playing its third match of the group stage.

Lumbini started with the bat as Police elected to field first. And it was very difficult for Police to get the first breakthrough.

When skipper Dev Khanal departed as the first wicket of Lumbini in 10.1 overs, the team was at 73 runs. Khanal, the only centurion of the tournament so far, fell short of five runs for his half-century.

However, another opener, Mrinal Gurung, registered his half-century before departing as the second wicket in 16.2 overs. Gurung returned to the dugout at 50 off 38.

While Aakash Tripathi crossed the 30-run mark, Lumbini could only add 151 runs on the board in loss of five wickets. Abhishek Karki and Manjeet Shrestha took two wickets each while Lalit Bhandari took one against Lumbini.

Meanwhile, Police only lost two wickets as the team chased the target in 16.5 overs. Rohan BK was Police’s major batsman as he stayed not out at 80 off 50 to take the team to the win.

BK’s partner, Amit Shrestha departed after falling only a run short of his half-century in 15.1 overs. With Shrestha getting run out, skipper Khanal was the lone wicket-taker for Lumbini.