The departmental team has entered the semi-finals of the APF Club PM Cup Men’s ODI Cricket Tournament.
After defeating Karnali Province by 44 runs at the TU Cricket Ground on Saturday, APF has set a trip to the last four.
Karnali, who batted in reply with the target of 235 runs given by APF, could score only 190 runs in 48 overs. Even though Rabindra Shahi played a half century innings of 80 runs for Karnali, he could not give the team victory.
Similarly, Bipin Shahi scored 34 runs, Arjun Gharti scored 24 runs and Dinesh Adhikari scored 20 runs. Mausam Dhakal of APF took 4 wickets. Kamal Airee and Bhuwan Karki took 2 wickets and 2 wickets respectively.
Before that, APF, who won the toss and batted first, scored 234 runs in 47 overs.
Aasif Shaikh played a century innings of 130 runs for APF. He hit 15 fours and 1 six off 136 balls. At a loss of 7 wickets for 140 runs, Asif shared a partnership of 63 runs with Bhuwan Karki. Bhuwan added 23 runs while Pradeep Airee scored 20 runs. Lokesh Bam and Deepak Bohara scored 10 runs each.
Dipendra Rawat and Prakash Jaisi of Karnali took 3/3 wickets. Diwan Pun took 2 wickets.
With this win, APF secured a place in the semi-finals from Group ‘A’. APF has scored 7 points in 4 matches. APF is at the top position. This is Karnali’s second consecutive defeat.
As part of the tournament, Madhesh Province defeated Lumbini Province by 92 runs in the match held at Mulpani ground on Saturday.
Chasing the target of 260 runs given by Madhesh, Lumbini managed to score only 167 runs after losing all the wickets with one over remaining after the scheduled 50 overs.
Bishal Bikram KC played the highest innings of 34 runs for Lumbini who batted in response, while Krishna Karki scored 31 runs, Sandeep Rizal scored 23 runs and Bashir Ahmed and Mohammad Hussain scored 15 runs each.
Rajesh Yadav and Pradeep Paswan of Madhesh took 3/3 wickets while stopping Lumbini’s innings cheaply. Similarly, while Harishankar Shah took two wickets, Rupesh Singh had one wicket.
Madhesh, who lost the toss and were invited to bat first, lost all wickets in 48 overs and scored 259 runs. Openers Santosh Karki and Harishankar Shah played half-centuries. While Santosh scored 50 runs, Harishankar Shah scored 76 runs.
Similarly, while Anil Sah also played a half-century ( 50 ) innings, Bibek Yadav scored 21 runs and Mohammad Adil Alam added 12 runs. While taking all the wickets of Madhesh, Krishna Karki took the most three wickets, Anil Kharel took two wickets, Basir Ahamad, Dev Khanal, Mohammad Hussain had one wicket each.
There will be two matches in the tournament on Sunday. Gandaki Pradesh and Tribhuvan Army Club and Kirti at Mulpani Cricket Ground