Lumbini Province secured a crucial win against Bagmati Province on Tuesday to secure a place in the top six of the Prime Minister's Cup One-Day National Cricket Tournament. Lumbini defeated Bagmati Province by 34 runs in a match that was crucial for the top six. Lumbini, who won the toss and elected to bat, were bowled out for 233 runs in 45.2 overs at the proposed Ramjanaki Multi-Purpose Stadium in Janakpur. In reply, Bagmati were bowled out for 199 runs in 44 overs. Bagmati has slipped to eighth place after this defeat. The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) had decided to field six teams in the next season's Jai Trophy two-day national tournament. Earlier, only the top four teams of the PM Cup were playing in the Jai Trophy. Lumbini has climbed to fifth place with a win over Bagmati. Lumbini still has one game left. Tribhuvan Army Club has 15 and Sudurpaschim Province has already secured a place in the top two with 12 points. Nepal APF Club is in fourth place with 11 points. Nepal Police Club, Lumbini, Madhesh and Gandaki Province are in fifth to seventh place respectively with 9 points. Gandaki is behind these three teams in terms of net run rate. But if Police defeats Madhesh in the last match of the round-robin league on Wednesday, Gandaki can move ahead in run rate. Bagmati is in eighth place with 8 points. Bagmati, which played the two-day Jai Trophy in the top four in the previous two seasons, will miss out on the important competition next season after failing to make it to the top six this time. Karnali is in ninth and tenth place with 3 and Koshi are in tenth place with 1 point. The top two teams will play in the final after the 10 participating teams play against each other in a round-robin league.

Even though opener Ranjit Khadka was out for 4 runs, Lumbini made a challenging score in Janakpur with the efforts of Prajwal Thapa, captain Dev Khanal and Akash Tripathi. Before being run out, opener Prajwal scored 46 runs in 62 balls including 7 fours. Dev scored 37 runs in 56 balls including 5 fours. Akash scored the highest 72 runs. He hit 9 fours and 1 six in 72 balls. Dinesh Bohara scored 14, Santosh Yadav scored 25 in 27 balls including 2 fours, Darsh Sunar scored 7, Nirmal Gurung scored 2 and Biprasan KC scored 13 runs. Captain Sandeep Lamichhane and Vivek Rana Magar took 3 wickets each from Bagmati. Sandeep scored 44 in 10 overs and Vivek scored 33 runs in 7 overs. Region Dhakal took 2 wickets for 40 runs in 8.2 overs and Pratish GC took 1 wicket.

Vivek scored the highest 45 runs from Bagmati. He hit 3 fours and 4 sixes in 49 balls. Ashutosh Ghiraiya 15, Shubh Kansakar 12, Ringjin Lama 16, Ishan Pandey 17, Sonu Devkota were out for naught. Uttam Thapa Magar was out for 23 with 2 fours in 61 balls, Region 4 and Pratish for 14 runs. Batting at number 10, Sandeep scored 32 runs with 2 fours in 36 balls.

Nirmal gave Lumbini an important victory by taking 5 wickets. He became the player of the match by conceding 27 runs in 10 overs and keeping 4 maidens. Biprasan took 17 in 8 overs and Dinesh took 8 runs in 3 overs, taking 2-2 and Ajay Chauhan took 1 wicket.

Karnali's chances remain

Gandaki has comfortably won by 9 wickets over Karnali Pradesh in the match held in Birgunj after Bipin Khatri shone. Gandaki showed excellent bowling and strong batting at the TB Shah Cricket Ground.

Gandaki, who elected to field after winning the toss, bundled out Karnali for 72 runs in 25.2 overs. Karnali's Prakash Jaisi scored an unbeaten 15 off 36 balls, Diwan Pun scored 14 off 27 balls and Arjun Gharti scored 13 off 21 balls. Gandaki's Bipin took 5 wickets in 10 overs, taking 4 maidens and taking 18 runs. Undefeated Poudel took 3 wickets for 28 runs in 7 overs, while Subash Bhandari and Kamal Pariyar took 1 wicket each.