In the match played in Kirtipur, Lumbini's Sher Malla and Rohit Poudel bowled impressively, taking 3 wickets each as Kathmandu was bundled out for 111 runs in 19.1 overs.
What you should know
Lumbini Lions bowled brilliantly and easily defeated Kathmandu Gorkhas in the eliminator of the Nepal Premier League (NPL) cricket.
Kathmandu captain Karan KC won the toss and elected to bat at the Tribhuvan University Cricket International Ground, Kirtipur on Wednesday, and the team was all out for 111 runs in 19.1 overs.
Sher Malla and captain Rohit Poudel took 3 wickets each. Sher scored 22 runs in 4 overs and Rohit scored 25 runs in 4 overs. Ruben Trumpelman took 2 wickets for 10 runs in 3.1 overs and Abhishesh Gautam took 1 wicket for 33 runs in 4 overs.
In the second over of the match and the first ball of his first over, Kathmandu's regular wickets continued to fall. Sunny Patel, who was sent to number three, also hit a six but was caught lbw by Trumpelman for 7 runs.
Trumpelman gave Lumbini another big success by cutting behind Ben Charlesworth for 4 runs. Sher bowled Milind Kumar for 2 runs. Bhim Sarki hit a six and scored 14 runs in 16 balls. Rohit dismissed Bhim and John Simpson in the same over, putting Lumbini in complete control of the game.
Bhim tried to hit a one-handed shot when the ball went to the leg side, but was caught at short fine leg. Simpson was out for 18 runs in 17 balls, hitting 1 four and 1 six. Rashid Khan could only score 2 runs. Mohammad Adil Ansari, who came after him, hit 2 sixes and 1 four to score 18 runs in 11 balls. He was bowled by Sher.
Karan also scored 9 runs by hitting 1 six. Santosh Yadav scored the highest for Kathmandu with 23 runs. The last player to be dismissed was Santosh, who hit 1 six in 17 balls. Shahab Alam remained unbeaten on 4 runs.
The team that wins this match will play Biratnagar Kings in Qualifier 2 on Thursday, and the winning team will compete with Sudurpaschim Royals for the title on Saturday.
Kathmandu has not changed any players from the team that played the previous match. Lumbini has fielded Dinesh Adhikari in place of Sumit Maharjan. This is his second match in the tournament. Although he was in the team in the match against Chitwan Rhinos, he did not bat or bowl.
Kathmandu was in third place after the league stage with 10 points. Lumbini was in fourth place with 8 points. Kathmandu defeated Lumbini by 22 runs in the league stage. Last year too, Kathmandu defeated Lumbini by 18 runs.
