With the help of Ashif Shaikh's half-century, the departmental team APF Club defeated Gandaki Province in the Prime Minister's Cup Men's One Day National Cricket Tournament on Sunday. Title contenders APF defeated Gandaki by 31 runs in the match at the Extratech Oval cricket ground in Tilottama. This is the fifth victory of APF club.

Chasing the winning target of 259 runs set by APF, Gandaki managed to score only 227 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the allotted overs. Gandaki's Arjun Kumal scored 39 runs off 82 balls with the help of 3 fours. Dinesh Budhamgar 34, Muskan Thapa and Amrit Gurung were dismissed for 23/23 runs. Sameer Kandel and Kamal Pariyal scored 13/13, captain Bipin Khatri scored 14 runs while Sudeep Aryal remained unbeaten on 25 runs. Abhishesh Gautam took 3 wickets for APF in

bowling. Similarly, while Amar Rautela picked up 2 wickets, Kishore Mahato, captain Rohit Paudel and Bhuvan Karki got one wicket each. 

Before that, APF, who batted first, scored 258 runs losing all wickets in 49.2 overs. In APF's victory, opener Lokesh Bam scored 46 runs off 55 balls with the help of 6 fours. Ashif Shaikh contributed the most with 80 runs. He hit 10 fours and one six off 74 balls. He was declared the player of the match.

Similarly, Sumit Maharjan contributed 31 runs, Kamal Airy 25, Amar Rautela contributed 24 runs. While Deepak Bohra scored 11 runs, captain Rohit Paudel returned to the pavilion with 7 runs. In bowling, Sandeep Parajuli and Sudeep Aryal took 3/3 wickets for Gandaki. Similarly, Kamal Pariyal took 2 wickets and Chandra Poudel took one wicket. Bipin Khatri proved to be expensive. Khatri, who bowled 10 ovals, scored 64 runs without a wicket.

With this win, APF remains in the third position of the table with 10 points. Gandaki, on the other hand, has continued on the journey of consecutive defeats. Gandaki has won only one of the 8 matches played. Gandaki has lost 7 matches in a row and is at the bottom of the table with only 2 points. With consecutive defeats, Gandaki's title journey has come to an end.