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Kathmandu Friday March 08, 2002 Falgun 24, 2058.
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Chaitanya guides East West to
semis
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March 7 : A six-wicket haul from
Chaitanya Nanda helped East West Cricket Team secure a place in the semifinals of the
Ganesh Man Memorial Cricket tournament following a four-wicket win over Kathmandu Khel
Mandal (KKM) on Thursday.
Nanda derailed KKM innings, which looked
promising at one stage with the openers Subash Thapa and Raju KC putting on 49 runs after
they won the toss and elected to bat first in the match.
Although KC with a steady knock of 57 runs and
Neeraj Basnet (24) defied the East West bowling, they could not get enough support at the
other end and were bowled out in 34.2 overs for 134 runs. Nanda returned with an
impressive figure of 6-13 off his seven-over spell while Kundan Mehra and Birendra Shah
picked a wicket apiece.
Stepping out to chase the moderate target of 135
runs, East West failed to make a good start as they lost Vishal Razdan (7) in the fifth
over at 15. KKM bowlers, especially Bantu Bataju stuck to their line and length making the
opposition batsmen work hard for the runs.
However, opener Raj Dev Shukla played with
judicious aggression to keep pressure off East West. Shukla, who topscored with 56 runs
with the help of five fours put on invaluable 50 runs for the fourth wicket with Kundan
Mehra (21).
Bataju picked up a couple of wickets including
that of Shukla taking his match tally to three and Raju KC removed Mehat to leave East
West 122-6. But it was too little too late by then as Durga Sen and Chaitanya Nanda saw
East West through without further loss of wicket to take their team to the semifinals with
the four-wicket win.
East West’s Chaitanya Nanda was declared
man of the match for his outstanding performance with the ball while Raj Dev Shukla (East
West) and Raju KC (KKM) were given away cash reward for their half century in the match. |
