Phoenix College and Blue Bird College will lock horns in Tuesday’s summit clash of the Apex ICC Cup inter-college T20 cricket tournament.

Phoenix on Monday defeated Kantipur College of Management and Information Technology (KCMIT) by four wickets at the Mulpani Cricket Ground to progress into the final, while Blue Bird beat Kathmandu University by 76 runs in the day’s other semi-final clash.

Phoenix opted to field first after winning the toss and restricted KCMIT to 81 all out in the allotted 20 overs after Kiran Chand, Krish Ayer and Samir Bist all took two wickets each.

None of the KCMIT batters touched the double digit figures except Bishal Kunwar (17) and Subash Sapkota (14).

Phoenix was made to sweat after Aaditya Jha and Amit Mandal both took three wickets each but Birat Bhandari’s patient knock of 46-ball 27 and Raj Kumar Shah’s 16 not out helped them chase down the target in 18.5 overs.

Five-wicket hauls

In the afternoon thriller, Blue Bird’s Avinash Basyal and KU’s Rishav Khatiwada both took fifers but KU’s devastating batting display saw Blue Bird set up a mouth-watering final against Phoenix.

Khatiwada’s 5-14 helped Kathmandu bowl out Blue Bird to 112 in 19.2 overs. Sachin Lekhak contributed 29 runs for Blue Bird while Nirbhik Pathak scored 19. Rohit Sapkota took 3-13 for KU.

But KU batting could not deal with the lethal bowling of Basyal, Kaushal Rupakheti (2-4) and Subash Khatri (2-4) and were all out for a paltry 36 runs in 12.3 overs.