Bagmati Province registered their first win defeating leaders Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club by 27 runs in the Kathmandu Mayor's Cup one-day cricket tournament at the TU grounds, Kirtipur, on Tuesday. It was also APF’s first defeat.

Bagmati captain Gyanendra Malla and Nandan Yadav both scored half centuries in their moderate total of 233-6. In bowling, Sonu Devkota claimed six wickets as they bowled out the departmental opponents for 206 runs in 44.5 overs.

At the Mulpani grounds, Nepal Police Club edged Tribhuvan Army Club by three wickets to pull off their second straight victory and climb on top of the standings on net run rate. The low scoring match saw Army bundled out for 87 runs in 30.1 overs before Police scored 90-7 in 18.3 overs.

The outcome meant, Police climbed on top of the points table with four points, equalling that of the departmental rivals APF after playing three matches. But Police hold superiority by virtue of better run rate. Kathmandu Mayor's XI, Army and Bagmati Province are third, fourth and fifth on the standings, with two points each. While Army and Bagmati have played three games, Mayor's XI have played only two.

Only the teams finishing on the top two positions in the five-team competition after round robin league will be eligible to compete in the final.

Put into bat first, Bagmati opener and also national team captain Malla scored 57 runs while lower middle order batsman Yadav cracked an unbeaten 60 runs. After losing opening partner Aakash Thapa for one run, Malla shared 49-run partnership for the second wicket with Paras Khadka who contributed 29 runs.

Malla, caught by Kishore Mahato off Amar Routela, hit seven fences in his 84-ball knock and played 48 run partnership with Ishan Pandey before he was dismissed. Pandey and Aadil Khan were other remarkable contributors scoring 31 and 34 runs respectively.

But Yadav was the most successful Bagmati player with bat , scoring an unbeaten 60 runs off 56. Yadav, who came to bat at number seven, hit seven boundaries and two sixes.

APF bowlers Kishore Mahato and Amar Routela grabbed two wickets each in their 10 overs bowling.

The APF run chase got an early blow after they lost opener and skipper Sharad Vesawkar for four runs. But Aasif Sheikh (50) and Shankar Rana (29) brought the APF chase on track sharing 72-run partnership for the second wicket. Sheikh played a quickfire seven boundaries and two sixes off 38 deliveries before he was caught by Khadka off Devkota.

And then APF kept on losing wickets.

Bhuvan Karki (14), Sundeep Jora (25), Basanta Regmi and Amar Routela (27) were the other players who contributed runs to their side.

Bagmati bowler Devkota, named man-of-the-match, picked six wickets, conceded 41 runs in his 10-over spell. Ramnaresh Giri and Ariyo Poudel pocketed two wickets each.

At Mulpani grounds, Army made a poor start to the innings after electing to bat first and kept losing wickets in regular succession. Tailender Lokesh Bam contributed the highest 32 before being dismissed leg before by Lalit Rajbanshi.

Rohit Paudel was the only player among first eight batsmen to touch double figures for Army. Bikram Sob who came to bat at number 10 was the other player to contribute in double figure scoring 14 runs.

Sagar Dhakal was the pick of Police bowling claiming five wickets. He gave away 40 runs with two maiden overs in his 10-over bowling. Pawan Sarraf, who also made remarkable contributions with bat, came up with economic figures of 10-5-14-3.

In the run chase, Police opener Sunil Dhamala contributed 39 runs and shared 41 run partnership for the second wicket with Dilip Nath who scored 15 runs. Dhamala hit three fours and two sixes in the 48-ball knock before being dismissed.

Following Dhamala's dismissal with 48-2 on board, Police lost the middle order too cheaply losing four wickets for just 12 runs. But Sarraf came to the rescue of Police scoring an unbeaten 22 runs. He hit three fours and a six in his 26-ball knock.

Mayor's XI will take on Police in the only match scheduled for Wednesday at the TU grounds.