After foreign players Shikhar Dhawan and Chadwick Walton played an experienced innings, Karnali Yaks won their first victory in Nepal Premier League (NPL) cricket. Karnali defeated Chitwan Rhinos by 6 wickets in the first match on Friday.
But Karnali's victory was not easy. Especially after Sohail Tanveer gave only 2 runs in the 19th over, Karnali needed 9 runs for victory in the last over. Arjun Gharti made 2-2 and added 6 runs in the first three balls of Region Dhakal. He was run out for 11 runs in the fourth ball. When 3 runs were needed in the last 2 balls, Jisan Maqsood hit a four and won Karnali .
After Dhawan scored 45 runs in 41 balls and Walton scored 30 runs in 19 balls, Yaks completed the target of 131 runs with 1 ball to spare at the Trivi Cricket Ground in Kirtipur . Karnali won the first victory in the third match. Chitwan suffered their first defeat in the third match. Dhawan, who hit 4 fours and 1 six, was cut and bowled by Yan Nicolas Lofty Eaton . Walton hit 3 sixes. Dhawan added 53 runs in 10 overs with Dev Khanal for the first wicket and 51 runs in 33 balls with Walton for the second wicket.
Earlier, even though English batsman Ravi Bopara scored a half-century, Rhinos lost the toss and went into bat. Bopara scored an unbeaten 59 off 40 balls. He completed his half-century by hitting Karnali captain Sompal Kami with two consecutive fours in the 18th over. He hit a total of 7 fours and 1 six. Another veteran Sharad Bheshavkar, who hit a boundary in the last ball of the innings, scored 6 runs in 3 balls and remained unbeaten.
Sompal bowled Luke Benkenstein for zero on the first ball of the innings. Deepak Bohra 8, Bipin Rawal was dismissed for 11 runs. Bopara and captain Kushal Malla added 60 runs in 49 balls for the fourth wicket. Malla scored 23 runs off 27 balls with 2 fours and 1 six.
Debrehate spinner Bipin Sharma took 3 wickets by spending only 21 runs in 4 overs. He dismissed Yan Nicholas Lofty Eaton (9) and Sohail Tanveer (0) in the 17th over. In the 19th over, he bowled Amarsingh Rautela for 9 runs. Jisan Maqsood took 2 wickets for 22 runs in 4 overs. Sompal Kami and Nandan Yadav took 1 wicket each.
