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| Kathmandu, Sunday February 02, 2003 Magh 19, 2059. |
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Yeti Airlines crush Galaxian
for title
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Feb 1 : Yeti Airlines humbled
Galaxian Cricket Club by eight wickets to clinch the Birendra Memorial Cricket tournament
organised by Kathmandu Cricket Club -a club formed by the cricketers and cricket lovers of
Janakpur.
In the rain curtailed title clash at the local
Tundikhel, Galaxy elected to bat first but lost wickets at regular interval compiling just
73 runs in 23 overs - 4-over short of the allotted 27 overs. In reply, Yeti Airlines lost
the wickets of allrounder Prafulla Vaidhya and Sandeep Shrestha to chase the target in 12
overs.
"Since the match was curtailed we lacked
match planning," said Galaxian captain Vikranta Chettri, who also praised Yeti
bowling. "They bowled superbly and we in our desperate attempt to pile a handsome
target tempted to play big shots," Chettri admitted his team’s flaw.
On the other hand, his counterpart Raju Khadka,
who is also the skipper of Nepali national side, credited coordination among the teammates
as the key to their success. "We are the same side from a couple of year so my
players know about our strategy on the field.
"Apart from this, we individually know the
strength and weakness of almost all the Galaxian batsmen, so we went for their weaknesses
and fortunately we exploited them quite easily," added Khadka. "He also urged
the private sector to invest on sports especially cricket to promote cricket and
cricketers in the country.
Galaxians started their innings disastrously
when the semifinal hero Sudhir Gwalior went back to the pavilion for nought in the first
ball off veteran right-arm seamer Prafulla Vaidhya, who also dismissed Dipesh Shrestha in
his very next ball. Vaidhya notched three top-order batsmen of Galaxy in his fiery opening
spell. Kaniska Chaugain topscored for the Galaxian belting 30 runs, which included three
boundaries. The other two batsmen to reach double figures in Galaxian innings were Sanjeev
Chaudhary and Bantu Bataju.
Vaidhya, who was later declared man of the
final, claimed four wickets in his six-over spell conceding 26 runs. Left-arm orthodox
spinner Raju Basnet continued his consistency claiming three wickets in six overs. Skipper
Raju Khadka polished the tail picking up two wickets in an over.
Chasing a small target, bowling hero Vaidhya was
caught behind after scoring eight runs. Sandip Shrestha ran away with the match smashing
42 runs off just 41 deliveries. He was dropped by Sanjam Regmi at the silly-point off
Binod Das’ first delivery of the innings. The lapse cost the Galaxians dear as
Shrestha belted six perfectly-timed boundaries in his fluent innings.
Monik Shrestha played cautiously to remain
unbeaten at 18 while Paresh Lohani belted the winning run to score unbeaten four runs.
Sudhir Chaudhary and Bantu Bataju shared a wicket apiece for Galaxy.
Rajiv Shrestha of Yeti Airlines was adjudged the
best bowler of the tournament for picking eight wickets in four matches after delivering
94 overs. Likewise, allrounder Mehaboob Alam of Janakalyan, Thapathali walked away with
the award of best batsman for scoring 183 runs off 101 balls in two matches of the
tournament. Sandeep Shrestha was adjudged man of the series. CAN president Jai Kumar Nath
Shah, Nepali national coach and Former Sri Lankan Test legend Roy Dias along with CAN
treasurer Shashi Dutt Pandey and member Upendra Bhattarai gave away the trophy, cash
prizes and certificates to the winners and runners-up.
Other Story
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