Kathmandu district reached the final of the Prime Minister's Cup Bagmati Province Men's Regional Cricket Tournament on Saturday. Kathmandu defeated Lalitpur by 79 runs in the match considered the deciding match of the round-robin league. 

These two teams advanced to the final after winning the first four matches. Kathmandu managed to secure its fifth consecutive win by defeating Lalitpur. After 7 teams including 6 from Bagmati Province and Tribhuvan University competed in the round-robin league, the top two teams will play in the final. If Lalitpur defeats Makwanpur in the last match of the league on Monday, they will play the final with Kathmandu.

Kathmandu, who won the toss at the upper ground of Mulpani, scored 281 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the stipulated 50 overs. Sonu Devkota scored the highest 72 runs. He was named Player of the Match, hitting 3 fours and 6 sixes in 57 balls. Uttam Thapa Magar scored 71 runs with 9 fours in 82 balls.

Openers Rit Gautam 2 and Samrat Shah were out for 23 runs. Abhishek Budhaair scored 39 runs. He hit 3 fours in 76 balls. Captain Ishan Pandey scored 28 runs with 3 fours in 20 balls. Upendra Khatri was out for 7, Prasidh Jaisi for 5, Suman Bishwakarma for 2 runs. Sandeep Parajuli was out for 7 and Dayanand Mandal remained unbeaten on 9 runs.

In reply, Lalitpur was all out for 210 runs in 35.4 overs. Captain Ashutosh Ghiraiya and Vivek Rana Magar scored half-centuries but the others were out cheaply. Ashutosh scored 51 runs with 9 fours and 1 six in 39 balls and Vivek scored 88 runs with 6 fours and 5 sixes in 72 balls.

Ronim Tiwari was out for 7, Adil Khan for 13, Sachin Lekhak for 12, and Bipin Acharya for 17. Lalitpur lost their last 6 wickets for 12 runs. Dayanand and Sonu took 4 wickets each from Kathmandu. Dayanand scored 39 runs in 5.4 overs and Sonu scored 44 runs in 9 overs. Ishan and Upendra took 1 wicket each.

Bhaktapur's hopes alive

Bhaktapur still has a slim hope of reaching the final. Bhaktapur defeated Nuwakot by 164 runs at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. This is Bhaktapur's third win in 5 matches. This is Nuwakot's fifth defeat.

Bhaktapur, who won the toss and elected to bat after playing 49.5 overs on Shivam Tiwari's century, were all out for 380 runs. Shivam scored 113 runs. He hit 12 fours and 4 sixes in 79 balls. With Ringjin Lama 9 and captain Chris Karki out for zero, Shivam shared a 111-run partnership with Saurabh Sakkarmi for the third wicket. Saurabh scored 89 runs in 71 balls with 13 fours and 2 sixes.

Avinash Basyal remained unbeaten on 33 runs in 41 balls with 1 four and a six. Active Pratap Karki 27, Subash Khatri 23, Vivek Yadav 21 and Bhupendra Acharya were out for 18 runs. Nuwakot's Ishan Pali and Bidhan Khatiwada took 3 wickets each. Ishan took 65 in 10 overs and Bidhan took 68 runs with 1 maiden in 8 overs. Afzal Mansur took 2 wickets and Ganesh Gautam and Yogesh Bhat Chhetri took 1 wicket each.

Nuwakot could only score 216 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their full 50 overs. Anubhav Khanal scored the highest 47 runs. He hit 4 fours in 84 balls. Rajesh Rimal scored 38 in 35 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes, Manjit Thapaliya scored 37 in 43 balls with 5 fours, Kailash Bhattarai scored 24, Yogash 14 and Ayush Dulal scored 12 runs. Ishan remained unbeaten on 12 runs.