E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, MAY 22 -

Nepal Police Club (NPC) clinched their first trophy and also set the record straight against Armed Police Force (APF) with a four-wickets victory in the final of the Pepsi Standard Chartered T-20 National Cricket on Saturday.

Chasing a target of 86 runs, NPC hit the winning runs in the second last ball of their innings to seal the

T-20 nationals to their name.

NPC were under pressure to prove themselves after conceding the one-day nationals to APF a week ago. According to NPC captain Binod Das, they had come under pressure after losing the one-day nationals and had worked hard to even the score.

“We had to win this time and we had worked hard for this trophy,” Das said. “We had come out to settle for nothing than a win.”

Chasing a modest target, NPC did not have a steady start, as they lost opener Mahesh Chhetri for a duck in the very first over with just a run to their name.

Binod Bhandari and Naresh Budhayer then put up 25 runs for the second wicket partnership. Bhandari (10) went back to the seats in 6.4 overs.

New batsman Puspa Thapa was caught by Sunam Gautam off Sanjam Regmi in 7.3 overs which reduced NPC to 27/3. Budhayer then put up 42 runs fourth-wicket partnership with Pradeep Aire to tilt the match in their favour. Runs were coming only in singles and occasionally double, as for boundaries, after a four in the third over from Bhandari it had dried up.

Budhayer’s massive six off captain Paras Khadka eased the pressure off NPC who required 31 runs in as many balls. Basanta Regmi broke the partnership trapping Budhayer leg before and NPC were 69/4 in 16.5 overs.

Budhayer hit 38 runs off 37 balls including a boundary and a six. Das and Aire who had then steadied the innings were run out in two consecutive overs leaving NPC with two runs required off three balls.

Earlier, NPC won the toss and sent APF in to bat. Making excellent use of the wicket and the overcast condition they had APF batsmen eating out of their hands.

They used spin from the first over and left arm spinner Bhuwan Karki proved them right as he gave two runs and took a wicket in the first over.

He struck in his second over Dipendra Chaudhary (1) caught by Aire at mid-wicket shrinking APF to 4/2 in third over.

Das bowling from the other end got rid of Khadka and Paresh Lohani in the fourth wicket and APF were 8/4 in four overs. Shakti Gauchan, Sharad Vesawkar and Mehboob Alam all departed in a hurry trimming APF’s score to 20/7 in eight overs.

Gyanendra Malla and Basanta stitched 46 runs partnership to take APF to a respectable total. Basanta contributed 19 runs before getting out to Chandra Saud. Malla, who stroked 35 runs off 43 balls including two boundaries and a six, ran out of partners at the other end as APF were bowled out for 85 runs in 19.3 overs. Das grabbed four wickets, Saud claimed three while Karki and Rahul BK took two and one respectively for NPC.

Along with the winners trophy NPC bagged a cash prize of

Rs 125,000 while runner-up APF received Rs 75,000. Likewise, Alam bagged the player of the series award while the best batsman and best bowler award went to Chaudhary and Gauchan respectively.

Posted on: 2011-05-22 08:47

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