Shankar Rana's century-inspired Nepal Police Club defeated Bagmati Pradesh by 7 wickets in the Prime Minister's (PM) Cup Men's National Cricket on Thursday. Defending champions Police won their second consecutive match since losing in the first match.

Opening batsman Shankar scored 116 runs at the upper ground of Mulpani, as Police achieved the target of 266 runs by scoring 271 runs in 44 overs. Player of the Match Shankar hit 13 fours and 4 sixes in 128 balls. Shankar, who is in excellent form, had also scored an unbeaten 105 runs in a two-day match against Nepal APF Club last month.

He shared a 159-run partnership with Dinesh Kharel in 25 overs for the first wicket. Dinesh scored 70 runs in 75 balls, including 8 fours and 3 sixes. Although Dilshad Ali was dismissed for 8 runs, captain Arif Sheikh and Rashid Khan gave Police a comfortable victory. Arif scored 43 runs in 47 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes, while Rashid remained unbeaten on 10 runs with 1-1 four and a six in 2 balls. Bagmati's Rijan Dhakal, captain Sandeep Lamichhane and Subash Khatri took 1 wicket each.

Bagmati, who elected to bat after winning the toss, were all out for 265 runs in 49.2 overs. Bagmati scored a big score after Ishan Pandey and Pawan Thapa scored half-centuries. Shubha Kansakar was out for 14, Ashutosh Ghiraiya for 22 and Shivam Tiwari for 12 runs, while Ishan and Pawan shared a partnership of 124 runs for the third wicket.

Ishan scored 70 runs in 80 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes, while Pawan scored 79 runs in 101 balls with 6 fours and 1 six. Vivek Rana Magar 7, Uttam Thapa Magar 21, Pratish GC 5, Sandeep 13 and Subash were out for 1 run. Dinesh and Rashid took 3 wickets each from Police. Dinesh took 14 in 5 overs and Rashid took 1 maiden in 9 overs for 54 runs. Karan KC took 2 wickets for 54 runs in 9.2 overs for 1 maiden and Lalit Rajbanshi took 1 wicket for 47 runs in 10 overs for 1 maiden.

Army's success

Like Police, Army also won its second win in 3 matches. Army also defeated Gandaki Pradesh by 7 wickets. After Arjun Kumal scored 67 and Deepak Dumre scored 51 runs, Gandaki won the toss and elected to bat on the lower ground of Mulpani and was all out for 204 runs in 49.4 overs.

Opener Arjun hit 4 fours and 1 six in 102 balls and Deepak hit 3 fours and 2 sixes in 45 balls. Gaurav BK 6, Vansh Chhetri 10, Sibrin Shrestha 14, Sandesh Panthi 13, captain Bipin Khatri 4, Kamal Pariyar 3, Ankit Neupane 1 and Krishna Poudel were out for 17 runs. Subash Bhandari remained unbeaten on 10 runs. Army's Akash Chand and Shahab Alam took 3 wickets each. Akash spent 48 runs in 10 overs and Shahab spent 53 runs in 10 overs. Kushal Malla took 2 wickets for 18 runs in 10 overs, keeping 1 maiden. 

After the opening pair of Tritaraj Das and captain Binod Bhandari put on 110 runs in 18 overs, Army scored the required runs in 34 overs. Binod scored 58 runs in 57 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes, Tritaraj scored 51 runs in 51 balls with 8 fours and 1 six. Arjun was out for zero. Trita, Binod and Arjun were out in the same over. 

Kushal and Bhim Sarki shared an unbeaten 100-run partnership for the fourth wicket to help the Army win. Bhim scored 54 runs off 53 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes, while Kushal remained unbeaten with 43 runs off 42 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes. Gandaki's Subash took 2 wickets for 26 runs in 7 overs and Bipin took 1 wicket for 38 runs in 10 overs.