U-19 Nat’ Cricket: Birgunj, Kathmandu win respective matches

Region No. 2 Birgunj secured second consecutive victory after defeating Region No. 8 Pokhara in the ongoing Wai Wai U-19 National Cricket Tournament on Monday.

In a match played at Kirtipur TU Cricket Ground, Birgunj defeated Pokhara by 83 runs while in another match of the day played at Pulchowk Engineering ground, Region No. 3 Kathmandu secured their first victory defeating Region No. 1 Biratnagar by 6 runs.

Electing to bat first, Birgunj posted the target of 134 runs losing all their wickets in 23.1 overs. Hasim Ansari made the highest score (48) runs off 29 balls.

Sunil Kandel grabbed five-wickets while Govinda Pradhan took four-wickets against Birgunj.

Chasing the target, Pokhara could score only 50 runs losing all their wickets in 24.2 overs as Bibek Dali grabbed four-wickets and Aakib Ansari took three-wickets while Hasim Ansari and Jatta Shankar Sharraf took one-wicket each to restrict Pokhara to just 50 runs.

Similarly, electing to bat first, Kathmandu scored total 137 runs in 40.2 overs by electing to bat first. Indra Kamal Manandhar scored 42 runs off 72 balls and Sharad Khadka contributed 21 runs off 28 balls.

Similarly, Bijay Gautam and Robin Joshi scored 16 runs each and Ayush Jung Rana added 13 runs for Kathmandu.

Jugal Kishore Chaudhary grabbed four-wickets while Hari Chaulagai, Amit Dahal and Siddhant Lohani took two-wickets each for Biratnagar.

Chasing the target, Biratnagar mustered 131 runs losing all the wickets in 40.4 overs, coming quite close to the 138 runs target.

Ujwal Thapa grabbed three-wickets while Prajesh Bahadur Singh, Bijay Gautam and Sharad Khadka took two-wickets each for Kathmandu.

Previously, Birgunj had thrashed Kathmandu while Biratnagar had defeated Pokhara in their respective matches on Sunday. Nepalnews.com