Surya Tamang continued his stellar form for Bagmati Province on Wednesday as well, as the spinner’s five-wicket haul guided his side to a three-wicket win over Tribhuvan Army Club in the Prime Minister Cup Men’s National Cricket Tournament at the Mulpani Cricket Ground.

Tamang had returned an impressive match figures of 6-18 on Tuesday to help Bagmati thrash Madhesh Province by 86 runs and revitalise their campaign following two straight losses. Tamang’s magic with the ball was palpable in Bagmati’s defeats to Nepal Police Club and Armed Police Force Club too – he had taken three-wicket hauls against both sides.

On Wednesday, Tamang took 5-26 for another player-of-the-match performance and choked the Army batting line up that was all out for a paltry 97 in just 27.1 overs.

Pratis GC also continued to make his mark returning a match figures 2-8 in his 5.1 over bowling spell that also included two maiden overs.

In fact, Bagmati owed their victory solely to their bowling strength for a second game in a row, with their batting inconsistencies almost proving costly in the chase.

Army opted to bat first after winning the toss but the Binod Bhandari-led side made a nightmare start to their innings, with openers Santosh Karki (9) and Imran Sheikh (5) departing cheaply credit to opening blow from Rijan Dhakal and Pratish GC.

Dhakal also got rid of national star Sompal Kami (0) in the eighth over to cause further damage.

Tamang then breathed fire with the ball, removing Bhim Sharki (18), Kushal Malla (0), Basir Ahamad (5) and Sandeep Rajali (1) as Army slumped to 70-7 in just 19 overs.

Skipper Bhandari, who scored a century in Army’s opening victory against Madhesh, handled the bat cautiously, looking for support from the other end but Krijan Gurung ended his slow knock of 40-ball 28 in 22nd over. Bhandari’s 28 was the highest score of the Army’s innings.

Tamang struck again in the 25th over bowling out Shahab Alam (7) to complete his fifer before GC took the final wicket dismissing Jitendra Mukhiya (8).

Bagmati’s batting order has failed to make a significant impact in this tournament – put aside Ashutosh Ghiraiya’s 92 against Police and captain Rit Gautam’s 60 against APF.

Their inconsistency with the bat persisted.

Opener Ghiraiya (2) and Gautam (4) failed to impress again. Ishan Pandey (12), Rabin Joshi (12), Pratik Shrestha (7), Ashok Poudel (21) could not cope with pacers Kami and Mukhiya, while Alam’s spin was also deadly.

But Bagmati managed to chase down the target, crawling to 103-7 in 22.1 overs at the loss of seven wickets.

A second straight victory lifts Bagmati to fourth in the ten-team standings, level on four points with leaders APF, second-placed Sudurpaschim and third-placed Police but Bagmati have played two games more. Holders APF, Sudurpaschim and Police all have maintained a perfect start this season.

Karnali also have four points from three matches after they registered their second victory with a 60-run win over Lumbini Province at the Siddharthanagar Cricket Stadium.

Invited to bat first after losing the toss, Karnali posted 184-9 in the allotted 45 overs with the help of a crucial eighth-wicket 72-run partnership from Dinesh Adhikari and Dipendra Rawat.

Adhikari played an unbeaten 56 off 59 balls and Rawat made 47 runs off 69 balls to lift Karnali from a miserable 86-7 to a fighting total.

Nirmal Gurung and Avishek Gautam took three wickets each for Lumbini.

Adhikari and Rawat also starred with the ball. Adhikari took 2-18 and Rawat picked 2-26 to restrict Lumbini to 124 in 41.2 overs, inflicting them a second loss.