For the second year in a row, Lumbini Province and Sudurpaschim Province will compete for the title of the Under-19 National Cricket Tournament.
The league stage of the competition was completed on Saturday, in which Sudur Pashchim ranked first in the group and Lumbini Province ranked second in the finals. Lumbini and Sudurpaschim will compete for the title on Monday.
Last year also both the teams competed for the title in which Lumbini region won the title. While Sudurpaschim won all 6 matches in the league stage, Lumbini suffered 5 wins and 1 loss. With Lumbini’s win, Bagmati, who had 4 wins in 6 matches, is out of the tournament.
Lumbini’s victory in a do-or-die game
Lumbini defeated Madhesh by 58 runs in a must-win match to reach the final. Chasing the target of 223 runs given by Lumbini, Madhesh lost all wickets for 164 runs in 45.4 overs.
Lumbini bowler Avishek Gautam and captain Bishal Bikram KC took 3 wickets each. Nar Sarki, Durgesh Gupta, Nirmal Gurung and Tul Bahadur Thapa took 1 wicket each. Madhesh opener Mayan Yadav scored 38 runs, Sarfraz Mansuri scored 31 runs and Ali Ansari scored 22 runs.
Batting after losing the toss at the TU International Ground, Kirtipur, Lumbini batted 50 overs and scored 222 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Prajjwal Thapa contributed the most for them with 85 runs during which he faced 128 balls and hit 9 fours and 2 sixes. Nar Sarki scored an unbeaten 26 and Akash Tripathi scored 23 runs. Madhesh spent 34 runs as extra.
Madhesh bowler Nikesh Gupta took 3 wickets and Nitesh Yadav and Abhisekh Tiwari took 2 wickets each. Abjit Mandal took 1 wicket.
Province-1 won
Province-1 met the target of 153 runs given by Karnali in the match played at Mulpani ground after losing 3 wickets in 31.3 overs.
Province-1 opener Sonu Ansari scored 45, Bhupal Dangal scored 42 not out and captain Dipesh Kandel scored 29 not out. Dangal and Kandel shared an unbeaten 57-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
After winning the toss, Karnali scored 152 runs in 43.2 overs and lost all wickets. For him, Suwash Ayer scored 47 runs, Mohan BK scored 29 runs and Manish Thapa scored 26 runs.
Province-1 bowlers Dipesh Kandel and Anish Ojha took 3/3 wickets. Abhinay Rajbanshi, Bipin Mahato, Ashwin Mahato and Sandesh Bhattarai took 1 wicket each.