Lahiru Milantha scored an unbeaten half-century to help Janakpur Bolts shellack Biratnagar Kings by eight wickets in the season opening match of the inaugural Nepal Premier League T20 cricket tournament at the jam packed TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on Saturday.

Chasing 128, Milantha smashed 75 not out off 53 balls, bludgeoning nine boundaries and three sixes as Janakpur overhauled the target with more than four overs to spare to make a statement win.

Captain Anil Sah and Aasif Sheikh, who also open the batting for the national team and have left a good record recently, could not move the needle as both fell cheaply for five and a duck, respectively, inside the second over.

But there was no joy for Biratnagar after that.

The left-handed American and Canadian all-rounder Harsh Thaker, who scored 29 not out off 33 balls, settled the nerves with a match-defining 116-run stand (off 87 balls) for the third wicket, guiding Janakpur from 15-2 to 131-2 in 15.3 overs.

“Lahiru is a very experienced guy. I knew that he was going to win us the match. Harsh also batted well with Lahiru,” Janakpur captain Sah said during the presentation.

The Scot Chris Sole and Pratish GC were the only Biratnagar bowlers to find success against Janakpur.

Earlier, sent in to bat first after losing the toss, Biratnagar’s experienced New Zealand opener Martin Guptill—who has played over 122 T20Is and scored over 3500 runs for his country—slammed a half-century.

But without any significant support from the other side of the wicket, he could only guide his side to 127 all out from 19 overs.

Eight Biratnagar batters left the pitch without even touching the double digit figures, with Omani Aqib Ilyas’s 15 runs off 18 providing the second highest score of the innings.

Lalit Rajbanshi, a national team regular, was deadly with his spin and showed his class with the wicket of opener Lokesh Bam with his first delivery in the 1.1 overs.

Ilyas and Guptill tried to build the innings adding 47 runs for the second wicket but the American Mohammad Moshin broke their stand, taking out Ilyas in 8.2 overs.

Thaker then turned the destroyer-in-chief, trapping his compatriot Nicholas Kirton (9) lbw in 11.6 overs and taking the most crucial wicket of Guptill next, in 13.6 overs, that put Biratnagar on the back foot.

Guptill cracked seven fours and one six.

Biratnagar still were well-placed at 96-4 when Guptill departed but their middle and lower order batters could not exploit their position as they lost the remaining six batters for just 31 runs.

After Rajesh Pulami was run out for one, Rajbanshi struck twice in the 17th over to remove Pratis GC (2) and Basir Ahamad (7).

Kishore Mahato, who came to play the NPL from Australia, did more damage with another double (Sandeep Lamichhane for seven and Jitendra Mukhiya for a duck) in the 18th over.

English bowling allrounder Ben Mike then cut off the tail dismissing Chris Sole.

Sah was also full of praise for the bowlers.

“Kishore was good. Lalit is our match winner. Moshin and Thaker also did well. It helped us,” Sah said.

“We had a simple game plan—‘let’s play basic cricket’. That’s all.”

Milantha was declared the player of the match.

“I enjoyed it a lot here. Fans are amazing. The atmosphere of the ground is quite nice,” said Milantha.

“We kept our calm. Harsh gave me a good hand.”