Janakpur Bolts, who won the first three matches comfortably, had never faced such close competition in Nepal Premier League (NPL) cricket. The team's 1-run victory over Lumbini Lions will also be in the fiercest competition of the NPL.

Lumbini was forced to suffer a defeat for the fourth consecutive match after Sandeep Zora failed to hit 2 runs in the last ball. On the contrary, Janakpur has won the fourth game in a row and the team has almost secured a place in the playoffs. While the story of Janakpur's victory at the Trivi Cricket Ground Kirtipur was full of thrills, it was heartbreaking for Lumbini.

Lumbini needed 23 runs from the last two overs for victory. In the 19th over, Lumbini scored 14 runs, 13 of which were in the name of Zora. On the first ball of the last over, Harsh Thacker dismissed Saad Bin Zafar for a wicket. Durgesh Gupta hits a four off the second ball. Durgesh, who could not score any runs in the third ball, took 1 run in the fourth ball.

Jora narrowly avoided being run out trying to get 2 runs off the fifth ball. Last ball Lumbini needed 2 runs to win but 1 run would have leveled the scores. But Lumbini came close to winning when Zora took a top edge to catch Kishore Mahato at square leg as he tried to pull Thacker's ball.

opener Ashutosh Ghirohia disappointed again. He got out for just 8 runs. Another opener Arjun Saud scored 20 runs off 23 balls with 2 fours. Captain Rohit Paudel scored 35 runs by hitting 3 fours in 38 balls. Tom Moores hit 2 fours and 1 six while scoring 31 runs off 23 balls. Lumbini's wicket began to fall with Rohit's dismissal.

Vivek Yadav not out, Ben Cutting out for 3 runs. Thacker took 5 wickets for 23 runs in 4 overs. Lalit Rajvanshi took 13 wickets in 4 overs, Kishore 25 runs in 3 overs and Sher Mall took 1 wicket each with 33 runs in 4 overs.

After losing the toss, Janakpur came into bat first and scored 136 runs after losing 9 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. Abhishesh Gautam, who was playing his first game in the Janakpur tournament, which had a great start, suddenly collapsed in front of the bowling. After Debrehate spinner Abhisesh took the wicket of 3 foreign players in one over, Janakpur, which 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 Thacker (1) and Jimmy Nisam (1) in the 13th over. After two overs, Rohit dismissed Mohammad Mohsin (3) and Sher Mall (0). Abhishesh took 3 wickets with just 20 runs in 4 overs.

Nepali U-19 team captain Hemant Dhami 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 from Lumbini. Jaffer spent 11 runs in 3 overs and Rohit 22 runs in 4 overs.

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

Similarly, Sudurpaschim Royals, who are closely challenging Janakpur, lost to Chitwan Rhinos by 33 runs in the second match on Sunday. This is the first loss for Far West after winning the first three games. Chitwan has won the third time in 4 matches. Sudurpaschim and Chitwan are second and third respectively with 6 points.

Far West, which came with a target of 165 runs, was bowled out for 131 runs in 18.2 overs. Ishan Pandey scored the highest 35 runs. He hit 4 fours and 1 six off 28 balls. Saif Zaib 18, Vinod Bhandari 10, Brandon McMullen 13, Dilpreet Bajwa 12, Arif Shaikh 4, Captain Dipendra Singh Airy 1, Naresh Budhair 5, Naren Saud were out for 10 runs. Scott Kuglen, the last player to get a

, scored 16 runs off 10 balls with 3 fours. From Chitwan, Rijn Dhakal, Kushal Malla, Yan Nicholas Lofty Eaton and Amarsingh Routela took 2 each and Sohail Tanveer and Ranjit Kumar took 1 each.

Chitwan, who won the toss and chose to bat, scored 164 runs after losing 5 wickets. Opener Hasan Isakhil scored the highest 65 runs from Chitwan. Player of the match He played 52 balls and hit 6 fours and 3 sixes. Santosh Karki, who was sent as an opener for the first time, could score only 9 runs. Bipin Rawal got out with 17 runs in 20 balls, Kushal got out with 13 runs in 16 balls.