Nepal clean sweep series

The Himalayan Times, Lalitpur, April 3:

Hosts Nepal completed a clean sweep of the first Indo-Nepal International Youth Twenty20 Cricket Series against visiting Indian side at the Pulchowk Engineering College today.

The Senior Nepali team won by 108 runs and U-19 team beat the visitors by 40 runs. The hosts had won the Under-17 match on Wednesday.

Batting first, the Senior Nepali team scored 184 and packed Indian team for 76 in 16 overs. Skipper Mehboob Alam scored an explosive 53 off 23 balls that included six sixes and two fours. Yaswant Subedi made quickfire 40 from 30 balls. Rahul Kumar BK chipped in 26-ball 36.

In reply, Mahesh Goshwal top-scored with 23-ball 22. Alam took three and Santosh Baral and Basanta Regmi two wickets each for the hosts.

In the U-19 clash, Nepal scored 146-5. Das made 49 while Karki scored 48. Sunam Gautam took four and Ritesh Singh three wickets for Nepal.

On Wednesday, THE KATHMANDU POST news

Prithu leads Nepal to victory

KATHMANDU, April 2 - Nepal Select U-17 XI defeated All India Youth Twenty20 Federation U-17 team by 65 runs in the First Indo-Nepal Youth Twenty 20 Cricket Series at the Pulchowk Engineering College Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

Captain Prithu Baskota scored 36 while Subendu Pandey contributed 24 as Nepal made a respectable total of 143 before being bowled out off the last ball of the innings. Sharan picked up 4/18 in his four overs for the visitors. Man-of-the-match Prithu then took the responsibility with the ball taking 3/18 in his three overs to bundle the Indians out for 68 runs in 14.1 overs. Pradeep Aire, Subendu and Ayush Sharma all chipped in with a wicket each. S

haran was the top contributor with the bat too for the losing side with 11. Nepal Select U-19 XI and Nepal Senior Select XI are in action against the respective teams of the federation on Thursday.

Paresh puts Kathmandu into final

KATHMANDU POST REPORT

KATHMANDU, April 3 - Paresh Lohani played yet another captain’s innings as Region No 3 Kathmandu set up the title clash in the Springwood National League Cricket Tournament with Region No 4 Bhairahawa defeating Region No 5 Nepalgunj by eight wickets at the TU Cricket Ground on Thursday.

Paras Khadka’s 3/14 restricted Nepalgunj to a lowly total of 109 in 46.1 overs before Paresh hit second half-century in a row as the hosts raced to victory in 29.2 overs losing just two wickets. At Lab School Ground, Region No 2 Birgunj beat Region No 6 Baitadi by three wickets.

Abhaya Rana took a wicket off his first ball to put Nepalgunj on the back foot straightaway and it could hardly score early on. When Nepalgunj lost second wicket off the last ball of the 12th over, it was 23/2 with a run-rate of less than two. Anupam Singh (21) and Navin KC (11) provided some defiance against the bowling attack that gave away 22 extras to take the team past three digits. Paras bowled eight overs for his three scalps and Raju Basnet got 2/25. Sharad Vesawkar got the last two wickets in 13 balls to end the innings.

Kathmandu too did not start well losing Dipendra Chaudhary (4) in third over to Navin Shahi but the skipper shouldered the responsibility and carried on from Wednesday’s 79-run knock against Region No 1 Biratnagar to add 99 runs with Sharad Vesawkar and took Kathmandu two runs short of victory. His 87-ball knock with 10 boundaries came to an end while trying to hit Ismail Ansari for a four to finish the game in style. Paras Khadka (2) and Sharad (16 in 72 balls) finished the match.

At Lab Ground, 2006 champion Birgunj, playing for the pride, needed a valiant innings from No 9 Kumar Prasun to pull off a narrow victory against lowly Baitadi. Prasun scored 34 off 36 balls with three fours and three sixes to rescue his team from 88/7 in 18.5 overs chasing Baitadi’s 141.

He partnered Sanjam Regmi (7) for 56 runs to take his team home after a batting failure. Binod Das (21), Sanjay Bomjam (19), Shovakant Pandey, Hasim Ansari and Raj Mohammad (all 10) got starts but could not continue as Rajendra Bam (4/32) and Sher Singh Khatri (3/32) pegged them down. Birgunj also benefited from 33 extras with Chandra Saud once again leading the wayward bowling with 12 wides.

Earlier, three wickets each from Sanjam and Raj had troubled Baitadi. Jagdish Budair and Binod Bhandari then played aggressively and got a few runs for the team. Jagdish hit three fours and four sixes for his 42 in 35 balls before Kumar got him out while Binod hit two sixes and three fours for a 32-ball 35. Dhirendra Chand contributed 21 not out while opener Shakti Bhandari got 15 and Kamal Raj Joshi 10. Binod Das, Sameer Thapa and Kumar each took a wicket.

Today’s Matches: Kathmandu vs Bhairahawa at IOE; Birgunj vs Biratnagar at TU