In the Nepal Premier League (NPL) cricket final, Sudurpaschim Royals will bat first against Janakpur Bolts. After winning the toss, Sudurpaschim captain Dipendrasinh Airi chose to bat first at the Trivi Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on Saturday.
Both the teams have not changed any players from the team they played in the last match. Sudurpaschim defeated Janakpur in Qualifier 1 and Janakpur defeated Karnali Yaks in Qualifier 2 and reached the final.
Sudoorpaschim defeated Janakpur twice in this competition and reached the final. Sudur Paschim won by 72 runs over Janakpur in the round robin league match. Even though Sudurpaschim was stopped at a score of 123-9, Janakpur, who came in reply, was bowled out for 51 runs in 12.1 overs. This score was the lowest score of NPL.
Janakpur was easily defeated by 8 wickets in Qualifier 1 and reached the Sudurpaschim final. After stopping Janakpur with a score of 139-9, Sudurpaschim reached the final by scoring 141 runs off 9 balls on veteran opener Vinod Bhandari's unbeaten 58.
Janakpur won the Qualifier 2 over Karnali Yaks by 2 wickets and confirmed the final meeting with Sudurpaschim. All-rounder Jimmy Neesam from New Zealand led Janakpur to the final with an all-round performance. After he took 2 wickets, Karnali, who batted first, lost 9 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs and scored 118 runs. After Nisam scored 45 runs in 17 balls, Janakpur completed the target one over ahead.
Sudurpaschim won 7 out of 8 games while reaching the final. Janakpur won 6 out of 9 matches and lost 3 matches, two of which were against Sudurpaschim.
