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| Kathmandu, Wednesday February 19, 2003 Falgun 07, 2059. |
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Biratnagar beat Bhairahawa by
68 runs to top table
Post Report
LALITPUR, Feb 18 : Biratnagar, riding on a
superb bowling performance from Lhakpa Lama, beat Bhairahawa by 68 runs in a match played
at St. Xavier’s ground on Tuesday to top the table with 10 points in the Birendra
Memorial League Cricket tournament.
Kathmandu are in second position with nine
points.
Biratnagar, the defending champions, made
191-8 in 50 overs after they won the toss and decided to bat first. In reply, Bhairahawa
were restricted to just 123 in 41.5 overs as left-arm off-spinner Lama captured four
wickets for 14 runs off 10 overs. He was later declared man of the match.
Biratnagar were off to a flying start as
openers Mohammad Alam and Yashwant Subedi shared 61 runs for the first wicket .
Alam made 37 runs before being bowled by
Basant Thapa. But Subedi held the innings together and topscored with 75 runs from 144
balls. He hit seven fours and two sixes and was instrumental in two other useful
partnerships. He added 53 runs with Deependra Chaudhary (20) for the second wicket and 44
runs with Yunil Shrestha (19) for the third.
However, some fine spell of bowling coupled
with brilliant fielding by Bhairahawa restricted Biratnagar from posting a huge total.
Basudev Thapa and Dipesh Khatri both finished with two wickets while Shakti Gauchan picked
one. Two of the Biratnagar batsmen were run out.
Bhairahawa failed to make a bright start as
opener Rijan Praju, going for a wild swing, was clean bowled for a duck by Mehboob Alam in
his second ball of the opening over.
Basant Regmi and Dipendra Lamgade tried to
rebuild the innings adding 79 runs for the second wicket. But before they could take the
score any further Lhakpa Lama and Rajkumar Pradhan removed Lamgade (41) and Regmi (21) at
the same score.
Pradhan and Lama spread their spin web
putting breaks on Bhairahawa progress. But the unfortunate run out of Shakti Gauchan was
the turning point of the match. Gauchan, while trying to steal second run after Ghanshyam
Thapa was dropped by substitute fielder Santosh Baral, found himself stranded with
Ghanshyam at same end. Bhairahawa simply disintegrated thereafter and were soon all out
for 123 runs.
Rajkumar Pradhan took two wickets while Alam,
Parash Luniya and Ayush Shrestha finished with a wicket each.
Today’s matches:
Nepalgunj vs Birgunj at St. Xavier’s
Kathmandu vs Bhairahawa at TU |
