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Biratnagar crush Kathmandu
KATHMANDU, JAN 10 - Mehboob Alam, Anish Aryal and Yunil Shrestha made merry of weakened Kathmandu attack as Biratnagar made the highest innings total in the history of the tournament on way to a 165-run victory here at the Adarshanagar Cricket Ground today.
Mehboob’s explosive 81 and the fourth-wicket century partnership between Anish and Yunil enabled Region No 1 Biratnagar to pile up 289/7 in the allotted 45 overs in the last league match of the Third Birendra Memorial National League Cricket Tournament.
Inexperienced Kathmandu batsmen could only manage 124 runs in 40.2 overs. Biratnagar’s total is the highest in the three-year history of the tournament. The previous best was 272/7 scored by Kathmandu in 50 overs in 2003 against Nepalgunj. However the margin of the victory is only the third best - after Bhairahawa’s 199 run and Biratnagar’s 193 run victory in 2003 - both over Nepalgunj.
Aggressive opener Mehboob gave a dream start to Biratnagar, who will play final against Region No 4 Bhairahawa on Saturday, after they elected to bat first. Mehboob took just 32 balls to race to his half-century and played 44 balls before being dismissed off Raju Basnet’s ball as the first Biratnagar wicket. Mehboob hit five sixes and 10 fours in his knock and added 93 runs for the first wicket with Ashish Lama (31). Man of the match Meboob hit 20 runs in Niraj Basnet’s first over and two consecutive fours off Raju before giving a catch at the boundary.
Captain Dipendra Chaudhary’s bad form continued as he played just six deliveries before being castled by Suman Kaji Sthapit for nought. After getting a brilliant platform to score, Anish and Yunil played brilliantly for 103-run partnership in 122 balls. Both scored half-century- 59 off 64 deliveries by Yunil and 79 off 90 balls by Anish. Yunil was caught at boundary by Niraj Basnet while Anish was caught by Yug Basnet - both off Raju’s delivery. Raju finished with four wickets while Suman took two.
Kathmandu’s bowling was weakened by absence of veteran Kalam Ali who didn’t play despite being in the playing list because of fever. Opening batsman Paresh Lohani too didn’t play last two matches because of injured shoulder.
Kathmandu never looked to be in contention during their run-chase as the batting lineup, including only Raju with international experience, couldn’t resist strong Biratnagar attack. Mehboob bowled five overs giving away five runs, all wides, while Hemanta Adhikari took first three wickets- Yug (8), Purushottam Bista (9) and Karan Ghimire (11) - before spin was introduced.
Raj Kumar Pradhan and Paras Luniya finished with two wickets each while off-spinner Ayush Shrestha took one. Niraj Basnet topscored with 25 while Raju got 20 for Biratnagar.Posted on: 2004-01-11 04:28
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