Army, Police dominate Madhes, Bagmati

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Jan. 12: The final two league-stage games of the Jay Trophy saw a dominance of the departmental teams over the provincial teams 1 as Tribhuvan Army Club and Nepal Police Club bested Madhes and Bagmati on Day 1 respectively.

Of the six games in the league stage between the four participating teams, Army vs Madhes in Birgunj and Police vs Bagmati in Janakpur were the fifth and sixth games respectively. 

At the end of Day 1, Army and Police had their opponents trailing by 121 runs and 95 runs respectively. 

Army was invited to bat first by Madhes. Madhes did great with the ball but three Army batsmen turned the tides. Opener Imran Sheikh’s 42 off 75, Bhim Sharki’s 52 off 93 and Basir Ahamad’s 67 off 98 were the deciding innings for Army while six other batsmen departed in a single figure. Army declared at 225/9 in 59.3 overs.

Slow left-arm orthodox bowler Ranjit Kumar bagged a fifer for Madhes; he also gave only 44 runs in his 16.3-over spell. 

Kumar’s fifer was however undermined after his counterpart Shahab Alam did the same for Army. Alam bagged six wickets in his 12-over spell; he bowled five maidens and gave only 37 runs as Army bundled out Madhes for 102 runs in 35.5 overs. 

As Army had already declared, Madhes started a follow-on after the end of the first inning and batted for the first over adding two runs. Madhes trailed by 121 runs before Stumps. 

Likewise, Bagmati had only one batter score runs when they were invited to bat first by Police in Janakpur. Ishan Pandey opened for Bagmati and he was doing well until the 32nd over while the team lost eight wickets in the other end. 

Pandey got out bizarrely in the first ball of the 32nd over bowled by Kushal Bhurtel. Pandey tried a reverse sweep but did not contact the ball. But as the ball got deflected off his pad and rolled towards the stumps, Pandey used his hand to obstruct the ball; he was then declared out for obstructing the field and departed for 71 off 94.

Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi’s four wickets, Sarwan Yadav’s three and Bhurtel’s two helped Police bundle out Bagmati at 112 runs in 33.2 overs.

Police then responded dangerously with the bat despite losing the two openers – Dilip Nath and Bhurtel – for a paltry. It was in at three Amit Shrestha and in at five Arjun Saud who rescued Police.

Shrestha added 79 off 97 while Saud added 77 off 82 before the team was bundled out at 215 runs in 45.5 overs. Sandeep Lamichhane claimed four wickets while Pratish GC and Nandan Yadav bagged two each for Bagmati.

Bagmati then started the second inning and batted for four overs before Stumps. Bagmati was trailing by 95 runs.