It has been proven once again that in Twenty20 cricket, the team that wins is the one that plays consistently. It makes some necessary partnerships and someone makes a solid contribution with the bat. Sudurpaschim Royals emerged victorious in their first match of the Nepal Premier League (NPL) on Wednesday, giving a similar impression. ‘We emerged victorious because our team played good cricket today,’ was the analysis of coach Jagat Tamata.

He meant that the Sudurpaschim team had fulfilled all the requirements for victory. Sudurpaschim, who had started badly, finally overcame the tough challenge posed by Kathmandu Gorkhas and won by 29 runs. Sudurpaschim, who had batted first after losing the toss, had lost three wickets by the time they scored 4 runs, and 4 wickets by the time they scored 27 runs. 

Not only that, even after adding 52 runs, 5 wickets had fallen. From here, American player Harmeet Singh played the decisive innings. He scored 53 runs in just 20 balls. That included 2 fours and 6 sixes. He was also the undisputed 'Player of the Match'. Staying there, Sudurpaschim scored 147 runs in 20 overs, which was a challenging score. 

'We had lost 3 wickets in the power play, so it was difficult for us. In this situation, Harmeet performed excellently. The runs we had scored were already there, the victory could have been ours,’ added coach Tamata. There were some decisive partnerships for Sudurpaschim. First, Arif Sheikh added 25 runs for the fifth wicket with Ishan Pandey. 

Arif added another 20 runs for the sixth wicket with captain Deependra Singh Airi. Then, Deependra put on a 61-run partnership with Harmit for the seventh wicket. Kathmandu Gorkhaz captain Karan KC took 4 wickets for just 30 runs. Out of which, the first three wickets were in his name. Milind Kumar, Sunny Patel and Rashid Khan also took two wickets each. 

Harmit’s all-round performance

Harmit not only shone with the bat, but was also effective with the ball. He took 2 wickets for 21 runs. The opening bowling pair of Scott Kuggeleijn and Hemant Dhami also bowled equally well for Sudurpaschim. "When Kathmandu batted, they had also lost 3 wickets in the power play, which made us stronger," said coach Tamata. Kathmandu kept losing wickets at regular intervals. 

Therefore, Kathmandu Gorkhaz, who were chasing 148 runs for victory, finally lasted only 16.5 overs and were all out for 118 runs. Opener Akash Tripathi scored the highest 34 runs for the team. However, wickets kept falling from his other end. Bhim Sarki scored 12, John Simson scored 24, Milind Kumar scored 11 and Sunny Patel scored 10 runs. But no one could put up a solid partnership. 

Kathmandu Gorkhaz coach Monty Desai agreed that Sudurpaschim played well. ‘We had a good start, but we couldn’t sustain it,’ he said, ‘I thought the target of 147 runs was achievable.’ He also believed that Harmit’s performance was decisive. Harmit was only a bowler at the beginning, but now he has improved a lot in his batting, said coach Monty. 

Monty remained confident that Gorkhaz, who won the first match against Janakpur Bolts, would make a comeback in the upcoming matches. Some of the umpires’ decisions during the match were not accurate. Some of them were unfavorable to Sudurpaschim, while others were unfavorable to Kathmandu. Monty did not want to say much about it. He believed that this is also an aspect of the game, there is no need to talk about it, it happens all the time. 

Although the cold did not have much effect in the first three days of the tournament, coach Tamata’s analysis was that it would start playing a role in the coming days. ‘For now, everything is new. For many of our players, playing under floodlights is a new experience. The pitch used is also behaving differently. It will be colder in the coming weeks and the frost will definitely affect the game.'