Janakpur Bolts set a target of 137 runs to Lumbini Lions in Nepal Premier League (NPL) cricket on Sunday. After Lumbini's captain Rohit Paudel won the toss, Janakpur, who came into bat first at the Trivi Cricket Ground, Kirtipur, lost 9 wickets and scored 136 runs in the scheduled 20 overs.

Abhishesh Gautam, who was playing the first match in the Janakpur tournament, which had a great start, suddenly collapsed in front of the bowling. After Devrehate spinner Abhisesh took the wicket of 3 foreign players in one over, Lumbini, who was 95-1 in the 12th over, reached 110-7 in the 16th over.

Abhishesh took the wickets of the tournament's leading run-scorer Lahiru Milantha, Harsh Thakar (1) and Jimmy Neesham (1) in the 13th over. After two overs, Lumbini captain Rohit dismissed Mohammad Mohsin (3) and Sher Malla (0). Abhishesh has taken 3 wickets by spending only 20 runs in 4 overs.

Photos: Hemant Shrestha/Kantipur

Hemant Dhami, captain of the Nepali U-19 team, was dismissed for 9 runs. Shubh Kansakar played 24 balls and scored 22 runs with 2 fours. Apart from Abhishesh, Saad bin Zafar and Rohit took 2 wickets each. Jaffer spent 11 runs in 3 overs and Rohit spent 22 runs in 4 overs .

Earlier Asif Shaikh and Anil Shah gave Lumbini a good start with 48 runs in 6 overs. Asif hit 2 fours and 1 six off 10 balls and got out for 16 runs. Anil played 39 balls and scored 45 runs with 1 four and 4 sixes. Lumbini's downfall began after he was dismissed by the work bowler Sandeep Zora.

Having had a very bad start, Lumbini has changed three players in its team . Losing in the first three matches, Lumbini has replaced Surya Tamang, Dinesh Adhikari and Unmukt Chand with Ashutosh Ghirohia, Abhishesh and Ben Cutting from the team that played the previous match. Australian all-rounder Cutting, who played the first match in Lumbini, was not played in the next two matches. But he is not bowling in this tournament.