The Leela Century Memorial Lumbini state level U-16 qualifying cricket tournament has started in Rupandehi from Friday. In the first match of the game, Rupandehi defeated Paschim Nawalparasi by a wide margin of 271 runs.
Rupandehi, who won the toss and batted first, lost all the wickets in 33.1 overs and scored 316 runs in the scheduled 35 overs match. For Rupandehi, captain Sameer Ali Muslim scored 118 runs while playing a century innings. Similarly, Siddharth Dhakal contributed 55 runs, Arif Khan 43 runs and Rojan Kumal contributed 38 runs.
Nawalparasi's team, which came into bat with a target of 317 runs in response, was limited to 45 runs in just 16 overs with a poor performance. Nawalparasi's Prem Sagar Yadav contributed 13 runs and Aaron Jung Giri contributed 12 runs.
Bishnu Thathar of Nawalparasi took 4 wickets, Panchang Mishra and Sagar Pandey took 2 wickets each and Aryan Ali took 1 wicket . For Rupandehi, Laxman Kumal, Prince Pal and Tushar Chauhan took 2 wickets each and Soheb Hasan Muslim and Supreme Kandel took 1 wicket each.
Samir Ali Muslim of Rupandehi was declared the player of the match. Competition coordinator Pratham Parajuli has given the information that Palpa and Kapilvastu will compete in Saturday's match.
Earlier, while inaugurating the game, the Deputy Chief of Siddharthnagar Municipality, Uma Adhikari, said that because Nepali players are performing well in the cricket game, more investment and player production is necessary. She mentioned that Lumbini province, which is becoming a hub of cricket, will produce many players with potential and believe that they will play for the country.
