Itahari sub-metropolitan city has entered the finals of the second edition of the Mayor's Cup inter-municipal level cricket competition. Itahari won by 42 runs against Mai Municipality of Ilam in the first semi-final held on Friday at the Janata Cricket Stadium located in Itahari-9 and secured a place in the finals.
Chasing the winning target of 207 runs presented by Itahari, Mai could score only 164 runs by losing 7 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. Love Kamat scored the highest 50 runs for Mica . Faced with 33 balls, he hit 1 six and 5 fours but could not win the team.
Sandeep Dhungana who played 24 balls scored 37 runs with the help of 3 sixes and 2 fours. Siwansh Bajgain added 31 runs and Anil Lamichhane added 21 runs. Itahari's Prakash Karki took 3 wickets and Josak Khadka took 2 wickets.
Itahari, who won the toss and batted first, scored 206 runs losing 3 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. Ankit Subedi and Gaurav Katuwal played half-centuries in Itahari's innings. Ankit scored 77 runs from 38 balls with the help of 4 sixes and 9 fours. Gaurav scored 62 runs. He faced 50 balls and hit 8 fours. Ritesh Rai scored 40 and Rohan Shah scored 11 not out.
Shyam Yadav, Sandeep Dhungana and Anil Lamichhane of Mai municipality took 1 wicket each. Itahari's Ankit Subedi was declared the man of the match and received a cash prize of 1,500.
Itahari will compete against the winner of the semi-final between Jhapa's Damak Municipality and Biratnagar Metropolitan Municipality on Saturday in the final on Sunday. Teams from 18 municipalities of Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari Udaipur and Dhankuta participated in the competition organized by Itahari. Competition coordinator CP Poudel said that the winner of the competition will get 1 lakh and the runner-up will get 50,000.
