Tribhuvan Army and Nepal Police Club have advanced to the finals of the Prime Minister's Cup ODI Men's National Cricket Tournament with their fifth consecutive win. Army defeated APF by 3 wickets in departmental derby on Monday. Even though the numbers are the same, the Police is at the top by overtaking the Army on the basis of run rate.

Army completed the target of 142 runs by scoring 142 runs in 42.5 overs at the Extratech Oval ground in Tilottama. Kushal Malla and Sompal Kami put on an unbeaten partnership of 58 runs for the eighth wicket to give the Army victory. Kushal 31 and Sompal remained unbeaten on 22 runs. Kushal hit 4 fours and 1 six in 59 balls and Sompal hit 1 four in 51 balls. 

Openers Tritraraj Das and Santosh Karki were out for 3 runs each, Imran Sheikh 11 runs, Bhim Sarki 4 runs, captain Vinod Bhandari got out for 8 runs. Vivek Yadav scored 26 runs with 4 fours and Basid Ahmed scored 13 runs. APF captain Rohit Paudel, Kamalsingh Airey and Amarsingh Rautela took 2 each and Kishore Mahato took 1 wicket.

APF, who were invited to bat after losing the toss, were bowled out for 141 runs in 42.3 overs. Sandeep Zora played an innings of 65 runs. He hit 9 fours off 91 balls. Amar, Kishore and Bhuvan Karki scored 11 runs each. No other batter could score in double figures. Opener Lokesh Bam was dismissed for 4, Asif Sheikh for 6 and Rohit for 4 runs. Akash Chand of Army spent 35 runs in 10 overs and took 4 wickets, Sompal 3, Shahab Alam 2 and Bashir 1. It is APF's fourth defeat in the sixth match. 

^{Police's Lalit Rajvanshi who was the player of the match at the Siddharth Rangshala in Rupandehi.}

Lalit's bowling magic continues

Lalit Rajvanshi's excellent bowling saw Police defeat Sudurpaschim Pradesh by 61 runs. Chasing a target of 161 runs after Lalit took 6 wickets, Sudurpaschim was reduced to 99 runs in 28.3 overs. Lalit took 5 or more wickets in the third consecutive match. He took 5 wickets with Madhesh and 6 wickets with APF. Lalit played 5 matches and took 21 wickets.

player of the match Lalit spent only 16 runs in the over. Sagar Dhakal took 2 wickets and Karan KC took 1 wicket. Sher Malla of Sudurpaschim scored 32, Milan Bohra scored 23 and Tek Rawat scored 12 runs. Taking over the innings from 33/6, Sher and Milan shared a partnership of 52 runs for the seventh wicket. 

Earlier, Police won the toss at Siddharth Stadium and scored 160 runs in 47 overs. Captain Dipendra Singh Airi contributed 42 runs. He hit 5 fours in 47 balls. Arif Sheikh 40, Dilip Nath 19, Amit Shrestha 18 and Sagar Dhakal were dismissed for 22 runs. Opener Arjun Saud scored 2 runs and Gulsan Jha only scored 1 run. Kushal Bhurtel could not open the account. 

Sourya Shrestha from Sudurpaschim took 4 wickets by spending 43 runs keeping a maiden in 10 overs. Bhojraj Bhatt took 3 wickets, Sher 2 and Hemant Dhami 1 wicket. This is Sudoor's fourth loss in a row.

Lumbini's claim to the top four 

After winning the fourth game in the fifth game, Lumbini Province has presented a strong claim to the top four. The team defeated Madhesh Pradesh by 83 runs on Monday at Deukhuri Cricket Stadium in Lamhi, Dang. 

Young batsman Akash Tripathi batted patiently and scored 73 runs as Lumbini lost the toss and were bowled out for 158 runs in 46 overs. Player of the match Akash hit 1 six and 6 fours in 123 balls. After losing 5 wickets for 60 runs, Akash and Krishna Karki shared a partnership of 75 runs. Krishna scored 33 runs from 53 balls with 3 sixes and 1 four.

Captain Dev Khanal scored 16 runs off 2 fours off 25 balls and was caught lbw by Kamal Gupta. Opener Mrinal Gurung scored 6 runs and Manish Thapa scored 5 runs. Nar Bahadur Sarki scored 5, Ajay Chauhan scored 4, Nirmal Gurung and Viprasan KC scored 3 each, Prajwal Thapa and Ramesh Kurmi scored 1 each.

Kamal Gupta of Madhesh bowled very hard and took 3 wickets in 10 overs with 4 maidens for 32 runs. Vishal Patel took 3 wickets for 13 runs in 5 overs, Harishankar Shah, Ranjit Kumar and Pradeep Paswan took 1 wicket each.

In response, Madhesh scored 75 runs in 26.5 overs and was bowled out. Dipesh Das scored 23 runs off 59 balls with 1 boundary. Apart from Harishankar Shah for 14 runs, others could not score double scores. Captain Anil Shah 7, Rohan Bick 4, Mayan Yadav 2, Pawan Sarraf 1, Pradeep Paswan 8 and Rupesh Singh were dismissed for 9 runs. Lumbini's Ramesh Kurmi took 4 wickets with 10 runs in 8 overs with 2 maidens. Viprasan KC gave away 7 runs with 3 maidens in 5 overs and captain Dev Khanal and Ajay Chauhan took 1 wicket each.