Chitwan Rhinos made a winning start in the curtain raiser of the Women’s Champions League cricket tournament defeating Kat Queens Kathmandu by five wickets. In the match played at Tribhuvan University cricket ground on Wednesday, the Rhinos bundled out the Queens for 92 before completing the chase with nine balls to spare.

Kat Queens won the toss and elected to bat first. Rashmi Chaulagain and Sobha Ale gave a good start adding 40 runs for the first wicket. But as Chaulagain fell after a quickfire 34 in the sixth over, Queens failed to take advantage of their good start and lost wickets in succession. Chaulagain hit seven boundaries from 25 balls.

Ale and Roma Thapa both scored nine and Apsari Begam contributed six runs for the Queens. Sarswati Kumari added 15 runs late on.Santoshi Chaudhary was the pick of the bowler for Rhinos with three wickets. Kabita Gautam and Rekha Rawal grabbed two wickets each.

Defending the total, Queens claimed Kajal Shrestha for 11, Kanchan Shrestha for 6 and Ritu Kanoujiya for 14 to leave the Rhinos reeling at 28 for three. But their hard work was undone by the 47-run partnership between Suman Khatiwada and Pyari Chaudhary. Khatiwada scored 29 while Chaudhary added 24 to guide their team beyond the total for the loss of five wickets.

The second match of the tournament features a clash between the Queens and Pokhara Paltan on Thursday.Five franchise teams—Pokhara Paltan, Chitwan Rhinos, Biratnagar Titans, Lalitpur Falcons and Kat Queens Kathmandu—are competing in a round-robin league format and the top two teams will play for the title.

The tournament has come as a huge respite to women cricketers who have not been able to take part in domestic competitions for the last four years due to the internal issues of the Cricket Association of Nepal.The tournament is being organised by the event management company Queen’s Event Management Pvt. The company had also organised the Pokhara Premier League.