Sudurpaschim Royals defeated Janakpur Bolts by 72 runs in Nepal Premier League (NPL) cricket on Wednesday. Due to the dominance of the spinners, Sudurpaschim won an important victory in a low scoring game.
After losing the toss and coming into bat, South West lost 9 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs and managed to score only 123 runs. In the match between the top two teams at the Trivi Cricket Ground, Kirtipur, Janakpur were bowled out for 51 runs in 12.1 overs. This is the lowest score in the ongoing NPL.
This is Janakpur's first defeat after winning the first four games. After winning over Janakpur, Sudurpaschim has risen to the top position. Despite having 8 runs along with Janakpur, Sudur Paschim is at the top on the basis of good run rate.
Except for Joshua Trump, who is playing the first game in the
competition, others could not make a double score. Trump, who was dismissed as the ninth player, scored 13 runs by hitting 1 four and 1 six. Captain Anil Sah was dismissed for 7 balls. Asif Shaikh 4, Lahiru Milantha 7, Harsh Thakar 5, Jimmy Nisam 4, Shubh Kansakar nil, Araniko Yadav 1, Sher Malla nil and Lalit Rajvanshi were out for 4 runs.
Earlier Saif Zaib and veteran Vinod Bhandari added 55 runs in 8 overs for the first wicket, but Sudurpaschim could not take advantage of it. As soon as Harsh Thakar dismissed English batsman Jaib for 21 runs, the runs of Sudurpaschim were curtailed and the wicket started falling. Jaib played 21 balls and hit 3 fours.
Harmit Singh, who was playing his first game in the
tournament, was dismissed by Sher for 1 run. Vinod also fell victim to the lion. Vinod scored the highest 33 runs from Sudurpaschim. He played 37 balls and hit 3 fours and 1 six. After Aranico dismissed captain Dipendra for zero and Brandon McMullen for 11 runs, Sudurpaschim was under more pressure.
Fast bowler Kishore Mahato dismissed Arif Sheikh (6), Ishan (17) and Scott Kuglen (7) in one over, Janakpur dominated the match. Kishore took the wicket after spending 35 runs in 4 overs. Sher scored 19 runs in 4 overs and Araniko took 2 wickets each with 16 runs in 3 overs.
