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| Kathmandu Wednesday March 13, 2002 Falgun 29, 2058. |
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Shukla stars in EWCC’s
runaway win
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March 12 :Man-of-the-match winning 83
runs from Raj Dev Shukla steered East West Cricket Club (EWCC) to the final of the Ganesh
Man Memorial Cricket tournament with an imposing 126-run win against star-studded Kalaiya
Cricket Club (KCC) in the second semifinal played at Tribhuvan University cricket ground
on Tuesday.
The win guided the Kathmandu based club to the
final where they face the high flying Youth Cricket Club of Biratnagar on Wednesday.
A couple of useful partnership in the middle
order saw East West put a massive total of 241 in the allotted 40 overs. In reply, the
much hyped KCC batting lineup came under pressure and could manage a mere 115 runs all
out.
WCC decision to bat first after winning
the toss seemed to backfire when they lost two early wickets including that of
skipper Bisal Razdan with only 24 runs added in the scoreboard.
But opener Shukla and Birendra Shah put on 65
runs for the third wicket partnership. In his 103 ball marathon innings, Shukla kept on
rotating the strike and punished the occasional loose balls to belt seven boundaries.
At the other end, the only big name in EWCC
line-up Birendra Shah scored freely and quickly to accelerate the scoring rate. Shah made
brisk 47 off 38 balls including a huge sixer over the fence off pace man Abhay Sharma
along with eight boundaries.
But when the team’s score was at 89, off
spinner Sanjam Regmi removed Shah with a cunning delivery after conceding two consecutive
boundaries to him in his second over.
Allrounder Sailendra Singh looked more
aggressive and compiled a breezy 37 runs in just 25 balls hitting four boundaries and two
sixers. Regmi ended Singh’s tenure trapping him leg before with an overpitched ball.
Regmi finished quite expensive with 40 runs in
eight overs. "Except Das (Binod) all our bowlers conceded loads of runs which
pressurised us and prevented us from going to bat with a positive frame of mind,"
said Dipesh Shrestha, skipper of the visiting club. "The target was really a huge in
this surface," he added pointing towards the pitch.
In the later part Das cleaned up the EWCC tail
but captain called him late for the second spell as EWCC had already crossed 200 runs by
the time. Das was the most impressive bowler of the match picking up four wickets in eight
overs.
Chasing a huge target, KCC batsmen never looked
settled against the tight EWCC bowling and near perfect fielding.
Three KCC batsmen ran themselves out. Singh
became destructive while bowling and fielding. He bowled three lower order batsmen. He
also found Kanihska Chaugain (34) short of his crease.
"We outplayed them in all
departments," skipper Razdan conceded. "Shukla and Shah really batted well and
our bowlers did a superb job along with the fielders while defending the target,"
ecstatic captain added.
Skipper Dipesh Shrestha, coming at number two,
showed some early fight scoring 41 runs off 53 balls but after his departure no KCC
batsmen could negotiate EWCC bowling and their innings wrapped up in mere 115 in 31.4
overs.
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