By a Staff Reporter
Opener Sunil Dhamala’s aggressive batting and top-notch bowling from Lalit Narayan Rajanshi helped Nepal Police Club (NPC) to find a comfortable victory of 9 wickets over Karnali Province.
NPC chased down the modest target of 86 runs for victory, losing 1 wicket in 10.4 overs. Opener Sunil Dhamala collected the highest 44 runs off 24 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes. Another opener Kushal Bhurtel remained unbeaten on 39 runs off 40 balls with 5 fours and 1 six.
Dhamala and Bhurtel made 81 runs partnership in 10 overs for the first wicket. Dhamala was caught out by wicketkeeper Bipin Rawal off fast bowler Prakash Jaisi’s ball.
Karnali, who lost the toss and elected to bat first got all out in 19.3 overs. Karnali’s skipper Rabindra Jung Shahi added 27 runs off 41 balls with 2 fours. Bipin Rawal scored 17 runs off 33 balls. 9 Karnali players could not score runs in double figures.
For the first wicket, Bipin and Rabindra shared 38 runs in 9.5 overs. Spinner Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi got Bipin stumped by wicketkeeper Dilip Nath. After that, Karnali started to lose wickets consecutively. Arjun Gharti 1, Subodh Air 9, Dinesh Adhikari 5, Prakash Jaishi 3, Nischil Rawal 5, and Mohan VK were sent off for 9 runs.
Lalit of NPC, who marked his comeback after injury, took 3 wickets in 4 overs. Sagar Dhakal took 2 wickets in 4 overs. Dipendra Singh Airee took 3 wickets in 3.3 overs. Manjit Shrestha took 2 wickets in 3 overs.
NPC will face Lumbini Province on Monday and Karnali Province will face Madesh Pradesh on Tuesday.
