Armed Police Force Club (APFC) outclassed Tribhuvan Army Club by a comfortable 6 wickets to triumph the Prime Minister Cup.
It was all too easy for APFC courtesy of youngster Anil Kumar Sah and Pradeep Airee’s tremendous knock, chasing 210 to win. Despite, Subash Khakurel and Anil Kumar Sah coming to open the innings the former had to leave the field early due to injury at the end of fourth over.
Airee and Anil played sensibly to handle the innings adding 138 for the first wicket. Fast bowler Sompal Kami was kept under pressure early on with the duo smashing him for boundaries. Sompal, despite picking 3 wickets was not good enough with the ball bowling at an expensive economy of 8.04.
Airee and Anil both made 63 to their names. They played sensibly rotating strikes regularly and smashing any poor delivery for boundaries and sixes. Anil’s innings included 4 fours and 2 sixes while Airee smashed 2 fours and 2 sixes too. The partnership was broken by Sompal in the 30th over but the match was in complete control of APFC. Bikram sob quickly dismissed Anil after Airee’s dismissal to revive some hopes. But 32 runs from Prithu Banskota and 15 each from Rohitt Paudel and Karan KC ensured a 6 wicket victory to bag the trophy.
Earlier TAC won the toss and put on 209 on board losing all wickets. Bhim Sarki’s 45 was the highest in the innings followed by Sompal’s 36 off 33 balls. Other notable score included skipper Binod Bhandari’s 35 off only 25 balls. Medium pacer Karan KC took 3 wickets in sacking TAC for cheap. Spinners also played their role with Bhuvan Karki and Basant Regmi taking 2 wickets each.
Anil Sah was declared the player of the final for his match winning innings. The batsman of the tournament went to Pradeep Airee who made 315 runs at an average of 52.5 in 6 innings. Likewise, Sushan Bhari was declared the bowler of the tournament for taking 12 wickets. National player Sagar Pun was honored with the best player of the tournament who took 11 wickets and also made 211 runs with the bat.
