St Xaviers College defeated hosts Apex College by 68 runs to register their second victory at the Apex ICC Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

Prince Kumar Jha smashed 76 off 57 balls as Xaviers, sent in to bat first after losing the toss, posted 136-5 in the allotted 20 overs.

Apex fell flat in the run chase and were all out for just 68 runs in 15 overs after Prajwol Singh Thakuri, Nivin Yadav and Suman Shrestha each took two wickets.

Dibesh Chaudhary scored 18 runs and Rahul Sahahi added 15 runs for Apex.

Patan Multiple Campus made a flying start to their Apex Cup campaign, defeating Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus by nine runs on DL method.

Ratna Rajya opted to bat first and posted 89 in 17.4 overs. Krishna Pariya scored 22 runs and Raj Kumar Shrestha contributed 18 for Patan.

Vikas Panthi and Shivu Thapa took three wickets each for Ratna Rajya. Nitin Pandey pocketed two scalps.

Patan lost Krishna Kandel for 21 but Panthi hit 23-ball 20 and Kiran Chand scored 17 off 17 to take their side to 70-1. But the rain intervened and the match was decided by DL method, favouring Patan.

On Wednesday, Ace Institute of Management will vie against Liverpool College and Kathmandu School of Law will meet Rainbow International College.

A total of 16 teams are participating in the inter-college cricket competition. The teams are divided into four groups. Top two teams from each group will progress into the quarter-finals.