Tribhuvan Army Club and Nepal Police Club will once again play for the title of the Jay Trophy Men's Elite Cup two-day cricket tournament. The two teams made it to the final after getting favorable results in the third round match on Friday. These two teams also played in the final last year.

After the round robin league, two teams remained at the top. Army managed to collect 66 points and defending champion Police managed to collect 65.5 points. After the four competing teams competed against each other in the round robin, the top two teams were scheduled to play in the final. Nepal APF Club with 53 points and Bagmati Province with 40 points finished third and fourth respectively. 

Police defeated Bagmati by 8 wickets at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur to secure a place in the final. Police won 2 matches. Police had built a strong lead on the first day itself. Police started the day's play with 245-4. The team declared the end of the first innings at 334-8. 

The previous day's unbeaten batters Dilsad Ali and captain Arif Sheikh both scored half-centuries. Dilsad scored 51 runs off 85 balls with 7 fours and Arif scored 53 runs off 83 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes. The two shared a partnership of 56 runs for the fifth wicket. Rashid Khan was out for 2 and Avinash Karn for 6. Karan KC remained unbeaten on 29 runs, hitting 2 fours and a six in 22 balls. Bagmati captain Sandeep Lamichhane took 4 wickets. However, he again cost 100 runs for that. He cost 118 runs in a total of 31 overs, including 4 maidens. Ishan Pandey took 2, Gautam KC and Surya Tamang took 1 wicket each. 

Despite Ishan scoring 80 runs, Bagmati were all out for 237 runs in 62.2 overs in the second innings. Ishan, who batted at number three, scored 80 runs in 90 balls, including 8 fours and 2 sixes, after opening duo Rit Gautam and Shubh Kansakar were out for 2 runs. Uttam Thapa Magar and Ashutosh Ghiraiya scored 16 runs. 

Vivek Rana Magar added 45 runs. He hit 6 fours and 1 six in 56 balls. Bipin Acharya was out for 22, Region Dhakal for 14, Sandeep for zero and Gautam for 10. Surya remained unbeaten on 30. He hit 1 four and 3 sixes in 48 balls. Lalit Rajbanshi took 5 wickets for Police on his birthday. He spent 84 runs in 26.2 overs with 5 maidens. Rashid Khan took 3 wickets in 17 overs with 2 maidens and 74 runs and Karan took 1 wicket. 

Police completed the required 89 runs in 15.1 overs. Region Dhakal dismissed Amit Shrestha for zero in the first ball of the innings. Shankar Rana was out for 27 runs with 5 fours in 28 balls. Karan, who was sent in at number four as the day's play was coming to an end, scored 21 runs unbeaten in 10 balls with 2 sixes. Young batter Sohail Kunwar remained unbeaten on 35 runs with 5 fours and 1 six in 52 balls. 

Karan was adjudged the Player of the Match. He took a total of 5 wickets in the match and scored 50 runs without being out in both innings. 

Army's safe journey

Being in a strong position, Army Club decided to play safely and make a final journey. If Army could avoid defeat against APF, their journey to the final would have been assured. Despite having a strong chance of victory, Army did not give APF a chance by playing without taking any risks. 

APF's first innings score was stopped at 140 runs the previous day, when the last batter, captain Rohit Poudel, was dismissed by Shahab Alam for 48 runs. Finally, Army took a lead of 112 runs based on the first innings. 

With Bashir Ahmed's unbeaten 101 runs, Army declared the end of the second innings at 268-8 and set APF an impossible target of 381 runs. Tritaraj Das and Bhim Sarki, who had scored centuries in the first innings, were dismissed for ducks. Opener Imran Sheikh scored 41 runs off 47 balls with 6 fours and Santosh Karki scored 22 runs off 61 balls with 4 fours. 

Player of the Match Bashir hit 12 fours off 119 balls. He shared a partnership of 71 runs with Sompal Kami for the fifth wicket and 110 runs with captain Binod Bhandari for the sixth wicket. Sompal scored 29 runs off 35 balls with 4 fours and Binod scored 63 runs off 61 balls with 9 fours. Kushal Malla and Naren Saud were out for 3 and 2 runs respectively. Rohit took 3 wickets for APF, Puran Bik took 2 wickets and Abhishek Gautam, Yuvraj Khatri and Irshad Ahmed took 1 wicket each. 

The match ended in a draw with APF scoring 228 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Deepak Bohra and Rohit gave the Police an aggressive start by adding 66 runs in 10 overs. Deepak scored 35 runs off 28 balls with 4 fours and 1 six. Rohit, who came in his opening pair, scored 35 runs in 35 balls with 3 fours.