With Lokesh Bam's record-breaking batting, departmental team APF Club won a thrilling victory over Koshi Pradesh in the Prime Minister's Cup Men's One Day National Cricket Tournament.
APF defeated Koshi by 2 wickets in the match at Siddharth Cricket Stadium in Bhairawa on Wednesday. With this victory, APF has maintained the possibility of the final. Chasing the target of 255 runs given by Kosi for victory, APF scored 258 runs losing 8 wickets in 44.4 overs. Lokesh Bam became the hero in the victory of APF . He scored an unbeaten 84 with explosive batting. He hit 6 fours and 6 sixes in 54 balls.
Lokesh was declared player of the match. Captain Rohit Kumar Paudel played a half-century innings of 61 runs. Rohit hit 6 fours in 73 balls. Deepak Bohra scored 36 runs and Sandeep Zora added 30 runs while Ersad Ahmed remained not out for 16 runs. APF's Ayushman Bam and Amar Rautela were dismissed for zero runs. Firdos Ansari of Koshi took 3 wickets in bowling. Ansari bowled 8 overs and scored a maiden for 41 runs. Similarly, Dipesh Kandel kept a maiden in 10 overs and took 3 wickets for 32 runs. Koshi's Gyanendra Shrestha and Prakash Karki proved expensive. Shrestha took one wicket after spending 69 runs in 8 overs while Karki spent 50 runs without a wicket. One wicket remained in the name of Bhupal Luintel .
Before that, after winning the toss at Siddharth Stadium, Koshi, who batted first, lost all the wickets in the scheduled over and prepared a total of 254 runs. Shakib Haque contributed the most 68 runs for Koshi . He hit 11 fours off 63 balls and was dismissed lbw by Amar Rautela.
Captain Ankit Subedi scored 35 runs, Ash Bhattarai scored 34 runs, Sujan Thapalia scored 33 runs, opener Chiraj Sah scored 24 runs and Dipesh Kandel scored 12 runs. Other players could not make runs in double digits . In bowling, Abhishek Gautam and Mausam Dhakal took 3/3 wickets for APF . Gautam bowled 10 overs and scored 49 and Dhakal scored 51 runs. Captain Rohit Paudel took 2 wickets with 2 maidens in 10 overs for 33 runs. Irshad Ahmed proved to be great . He took one wicket for 56 runs in 10 overs. One wicket remained in the name of Amar Rautela.
After this result, APF remains in the third position of the table with 14 points from 9 games. Tribhuvan Army Club, another departmental team that played one match less than APF, finished second on the basis of net run rate, although they had the same 14 points.
Earlier, Nepal Police Club has entered the finals by remaining undefeated. Police are at the top of the table with 16 points. Koshi Pradesh is at the bottom of the table with 2 points after losing 8 out of 9 matches. Army will now take on another departmental team, Police Club, in their final match of the league stage on Thursday . APF's trip to the finals is possible only if Army is defeated by a wide margin in the match against strong team Police in the departmental derby.
