NPL group stage comes halfway, fight for Top four gets interesting

Kathmandu, Dec. 9: Janakpur Bolts has managed to stay as the only unbeaten team as the inaugural edition of the Nepal Premier League (NPL) reached halfway in its league stage matches after the end of Match Day 8 on Sunday.

Janakpur Bolts registered their first win in the NPL opener on November 30 defeating Biratnagar Kings. They then defeated Karnali Yaks and Pokhara Avengers on December 2 and 5 respectively before registering their fourth win on Sunday after defeating Lumbini Lions in a close encounter.

With eight points from four wins, Janakpur stands at the top of the table. With the standing, Janakpur has almost assured a spot in the playoffs of the NPL. They will guarantee a spot if they defeat Sudurpaschim Royals in the duo's next encounter on Wednesday.

Sudurpaschim vs Janakpur, on December 11, would have been more interesting had Sudurpaschim won their fourth consecutive match on Sunday. While Janakpur registered four in four wins defeating Lumbini by one run, Sudurpaschim ended their three-match winning streak against Chitwan Rhinos on December 8 losing by 33 runs.

The second game of Sunday between Sudurpaschim and Chitwan was the 15th league-stage match. There is a gap on Monday (December 9) following which 13 games remaining in the single round-robin format will be played across the next week. 

The eight teams will play seven matches each in the league stage before the top four teams progress to the playoffs. Until Sunday, except for Pokhara Avengers and Kathmandu Gurkhas, five other teams have played four games each.

Pokhara and Kathmandu will play their fourth game of the NPL against Karnali and Lumbini on December 10 and 11 respectively. A win for the duo will increase their chance for the playoffs.

Sudurpaschim and Chitwan have their hopes high with six points each from four games while Karnali, with four points from two wins in four games, will have a tougher time without Shikhar Dhawan for the upcoming games.

Meanwhile, Biratnagar Kings will have to win their next three encounters against Pokhara, Chitwan and Kathmandu on December 12, 13 and 15 respectively if the easternmost team hopes to qualify for the playoffs.

Thus, all the teams will be playing a must-win game in the second half of the NPL as, except for Lumbini (with four losses in four games), all seven teams have some chances to progress to the knockout stages.

Top run scorers

Skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel is having a great individual time with the bat but his team has failed to win any of the four games they played in the NPL so far. Paudel, with a high score of 95 against Pokhara, is currently the leading run scorer in the NPL with 181 runs. 

There are currently 10 players who have scored over 100 runs in the NPL, and, of them, nine players have played in four games. Andries Gous, the wicket-keeper batsman from the USA playing for Pokhara, is the only one to have played two games; Gous, with the first and only NPL century, has 124 runs in two games and has a high chance of climbing to the top of the tally by the end of the tournament.

Similarly, of late, there are only three Nepali players in the list of Top 10 run scorers. Paudel reigns top while Dipendra Singh Airee and Anil Kumar Sah rank fourth and tenth respectively. 

Top wicket-takers

Meanwhile, of the Top 10 wicket-takers in NPL so far, five are Nepali while others are overseas players. 

Sohail Tanvir, the first to claim a fifer in the NPL, is at the top with nine wickets from four games. There are only two players in the Top 10 list who have played three games each, and they both are Nepali players – Bipin Sharma and Bipin Khatri. 

Sharma, the 16-year-old, has six wickets and ranks fifth while Khatri has bagged five and is in the 10th position. Abinash Bohara and Rijan Dhakal are ranked eighth and ninth respectively with six wickets each. 

Harsh Thaker, on Sunday, became the third player to take a fifer in the NPL after Naren Saud. He is in the third position with eight wickets after Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, who tops Thaker on economy. 

The likes of Sandeep Lamichhane, Karan KC and Sompal Kami are nowhere near the Top 10 list as the local and overseas talents have outsmarted the experienced bowlers of Nepal national team.

Nevertheless, regarding fielding, Naresh Bahadur Budayair of Sudurpaschim has taken the most number of catches in the NPL; Budayair has caught out seven batsmen, including a maximum of three catches in a single match against Chitwan on Sunday. 

Budayair is followed by Sudur's Ishan Pandey and Janakpur's Anil Sah with four catches in four games each.