Bagmati Province U-19 defeated Gandaki Province U-19 by 74 runs in the opening match of the Under-19 National Cricket Tournament, which started today in Kathmandu.
Chasing the target of 294 runs given by Bagmati, Gandaki scored only 219 runs in 45.4 overs in the match held at TU Cricket Ground Kirtipur.
Although Gandaki opener Arjun Kumal scored 98 runs, other batsmen could not support him. Kumal, who was 2 runs short of making his first century, hit 9 fours and 1 six off 119 balls. Cibrin Shrestha scored 21 runs while Govind Bk, Karan pangeni and Subash Bhandari scored 13 runs.
Bagmati bowler Ashok Paudel took 3 wickets while Sakriya Karki, Omkar Yadav and Pratik Shrestha took 2 wickets each.
Bagmati lost the toss and scored 293 runs in 48.1 overs.
Batting at number three for Bagmati, Uttam Magar top scored with 87 runs which hit 10 fours and 3 sixes in 70 balls. Similarly, Yogesh Bhat scored 52 runs in 42 balls with the help of 5 fours and 3 sixes. Similarly, Omkar Yadav scored 37, Abishek Koirala scored 32 and Atharva Poudel scored 21.
Gandaki bowlers Nirtesh Giri and Sudeep Aryal took 3/3 wickets while Subash Bhandari, Arjun Kumal and Cibrin Shrestha took 1/1 wicket each.
The U-19 team participation tournament of seven provinces will be held from November 23 to December 5.
The tournament will be held in single round-robin format. After all the seven teams play 1/1 matches against each other, the two teams who are best in the points’ table will play the finals. There will be a total of 22 matches in the tournament, including the finals.
The previous edition of the tournament was won by Lumbini Province in which they defeated Sudurpaschim Province by 113 runs.