Cricket
Khakurel's Narayani edge Malla-led Bagmati in Super Over
The three-team tournament is organised by Bagmati Province Cricket Association to bring the game back on pitch as no competitive game was held for nearly a year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.Sports Bureau
Subash Khakurel-led Narayani edged national team skipper Gyanendra Malla's Bagmati in Super Over in the curtain raiser of the Gautam Buddha Cup twenty20 cricket tournament that kicked off on Saturday in Bharatpur.
Narayani saw off Bagmati by five runs in the super over, courtesy to four sixes by national player Karan KC after both teams got tied at 117 runs at the end of 20 overs.
In the super over, KC smashed Sompal Kami for sixes in the first three and last delivery of the over before the bowler gave away wide in the sixth ball. In reply, skipper Malla hit three sixes to KC in the first four deliveries and also got an extra run as the match took an entertaining turn with 19 runs on the board. But Malla failed to collect a run in the next ball before he ended up with a single in the last delivery of the over.
Earlier, put to bat first, Narayani set the meagre target, losing wickets in a regular interval. Opener Sunil Dhamala and lower order batsman Bikram Sob collected equal 37 runs. Both Dhamala and Sob hit two boundaries and three sixes as the former faced 32 balls before being caught by Sundeep Jora. Sob, who played 31 balls, remained unbeaten. Rashid Khan was the third batsman to manage in double figures as he scored 27 runs.
Shahab Alam claimed three wickets for Bagmati and Dipendra Shrestha sent two batsmen to pavilion.
Narayani too made a shaky start to their innings as they lost first three batsmen — openers Rit Gautam (5), skipper Khakurel (11) and Ishan Pandey (13) — cheaply at 3-46. Aarif Sheikh consolidated the innings with a patient 44-ball 45 runs before being caught by Pawan Sarraf off Sompal Kami. He hit a six and four fences.
Siddhant Lohani, who was run out for 20 runs in the last ball of the innings, played a crucial knock. He scored nine runs scoring nine runs in all four deliveries he faced in the final over to tie the score.
For Bagmati, Kami pocketed two wickets. He conceded 27 runs in his four over spell with a maiden over.
The three-team tournament is organised by Bagmati Province Cricket Association (BPCA) to bring the game back on pitch as no competitive game was held for nearly a year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the event being organised in the round robin league, top two teams would make into the final. The teams have players from the national team training camp, age group teams and those of Chitwan.