Off-spinner Ranjit Kumar was the hero in Chitwan Rhinos' win in the NPL on Wednesday. His excellent performance of 5 wickets saw Biratnagar bowled out for 126 in 16.5 overs.
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Biratnagar Kings appeared to be in good form after winning three consecutive games. Had they been able to secure a win against Chitwan Rhinos on Wednesday, the play-off equation would have likely been much more favorable for Biratnagar.
But Chitwan wrote the script differently. That too was a victory that can be called magnificent. In Wednesday's Nepal Premier League (NPL) match, Chitwan defeated Biratnagar by 48 runs.
Off-spinner Ranjit Kumar was the hero of Chitwan's victory in the match played under the floodlights of the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. His excellent performance of 5 wickets saw Biratnagar bundled out for 126 runs in 16.5 overs. Biratnagar, who was given a target of 175 runs to win, was not on track to chase it at any stage of the match. Biratnagar kept losing wickets one after the other at regular intervals.
Ranjit had taken his first 5 wickets of the season for just 21 runs. 'I am very happy. I am grateful to everyone for this achievement. Everyone in Chitwan is supporting and encouraging me for my good performance,' he said after the match, who was named Player of the Match. Merchant de Lange and Pratish GC scored 39 and 30 runs respectively for Biratnagar.
Both the attacks were meaningless due to the poor start of the batting team. Earlier, Sam Hazlett had added 22 runs. Biratnagar was forced to play under pressure after losing 4 wickets in the power-play. Moreover, the team lost 5 wickets after scoring 39 runs.
Earlier, inspired by Ravi Bopara's brilliant half-century, Chitwan scored 174 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. Ravi scored the highest 65 runs. He faced 38 balls and hit three fours and four sixes. This is Bopara's third half-century this season. Earlier, he had also scored half-centuries against Karnali Yaks and Lumbini Lions. Ravi made the team's innings high by sharing 56 runs for the fifth wicket with captain Kushal Malla. Kushal remained not out after scoring 20 runs. Similarly, Saif Zaib scored 32 and Dev Khanal scored 28 runs.
‘Our team did not play well today,’ said Biratnagar coach Dhammika Prasad in the post-match conference, ‘Let’s not say that the whole day was bad for us. But our team could not play basic cricket. We could not get a good start and this continued to affect the team’s performance.’ After this result, Biratnagar remained in second place with 6 points. Chitwan, on the other hand, managed to climb to third place by collecting 4 points.
