SPORTS

Kathmandu Monday March 26, 2001 Chaitra 13,  2057.

Sanjay sends Biratnagar packing

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 25 - Sanjay Regmi bowled Birgunj to a 55 run victory against Biratnagar with a five wicket haul in the second day of the Under-19 Regional Selection Cricket tournament being played at the Tribhuvan University ground today.

Birgunj, batting first after winning the toss, scored 182 runs in the allotted 50 overs, losing all their wickets in the process. It was a moderate start for Birgunj as its opening pair could not do much on the wicket which is fairly good for batting. However, the middle order came out to save the day for their team.

The partnership between Sanjay Byanjan and Kirtarth Anand who came in after the opening pair collapsed under some good bowling from Biratnagar boys. Kirtarth scored 42 runs off 74 balls with five boundaries to his account while Sanjay chipped in with 26 runs to the total. Although, the Birgunj team shuddered after the parternership was broken, the tailenders came to rescue their team in the nick of time. Sanjay Regmi and Samir Thapa, the number 7 and 8 for Birgunj, both scored 17 runs each to contribute to the team’s total.

Spinner Ayush Shrestha was pick of Biratnagar bowlers claiming three of the Birgunj wickets at the expense of 29 runs. Manjeet Shrestha wasn’t far behind capturing three wickets as well giving away 40 runs in his quota of 10 overs. He also bowled a couple of maiden overs in his spell. Niraj Bhattarai and Md Raja Ansari took two wickets each.

For the strong team like Biratnagar, the target of 183 runs appeared to be an easy task for the day but Sanjay Regmi seemed to have other ideas. He gave a tough time to the Biratnagar batsmen as none of them showed enough courage and application to score against him freely.

Sarfaraj Ansari, the opener from Biratnagar was the highest scorer for his team scoring 42 runs with the help of six boundaries off 63 balls. Yaswant Subedi, the opening partner of Ansari, had a disappointing end as he was caught by Sameer Thapa off his own bowling in the 6th over of the game. Kailash Chaudhari, who came to bat after Yaswant’s dismissal, also disappointed his teammates as he was out for a duck.

The day belonged to the Birgunj bowlers who were successful in packing the Biratnagar team in 32.1 overs. Sanjay Regmi, man of the match for today, gave 25 runs in his 10 overs with three maiden overs claiming five wickets.

Sameer Thapa played a key role in breaking the opening partnership of his opponents, which could have proved to be a dangerous pair. Thapa took two wickets giving away 25 runs in his six over spell. Binod Das was also successful in sending back two batsmen to the pavilion spending 24 runs with two maiden overs in his 5.1 overs.

Tomorrow’s match will be played between Kathmandu and Birgunj.