Adam Rossington taps the bat on the turf a couple of times. As the bowler closes in, he raises the bat alongside his head, its handle angled upward. The moment the ball is released, he unleashes a powerful swing. This is a stance Rossington is adept at.

But on Tuesday, at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, Rossington took a while before he went into overdrive.

He played out two dot balls before taking a single off the third delivery he faced. He missed out again on the fourth, but launched the fifth for a six, followed by two consecutive fours. By the time the first innings concluded, he went on to hammer 11 fours and 7 sixes, finishing unbeaten on 108 off 58 deliveries and powering the Pokhara Avengers to 201/2 in 20 overs.

It was the NPL’s third-ever century, the second of the season, the league’s second-highest individual score, and only the second time a team had crossed the 200-run mark.

Pokhara were batting first after losing the toss. Rossington opened alongside skipper Kushal Bhurtel, Nepal’s regular opener who was opening for Pokhara for the first time in five matches. Bhurtel was showing promise. However, after three fours and a six, Bhurtel was caught out at 18 off 17 in 4.5 overs; the team was then at 34. By the end of the powerplay, the score was 44/1. There was little hint of a storm that was coming.

Rossington, the 32-year-old cricketer from England’s domestic scene, managed a 127-run partnership for the second wicket with his English teammate, Jason Roy, who has represented England in 116 ODIs, 64 T20Is and five Tests. In his first NPL match, Roy fell short of four runs for his maiden fifty. Departing at 46 off 34, Roy saw the team reach 161/2 in 16.5 overs.

Meanwhile, Rossington stayed on the crease until the first innings concluded alongside Dhananjaya Lakshan (23 off 11), the Sri Lankan batting all-rounder who debuted in the NPL on Tuesday. Completing his maiden NPL ton in just 55 deliveries, which was due after he departed at 81 runs against Lumbini Lions on November 29, Rossington became only the third player to score a century in the NPL and the second of the season.

“It was a good feeling,” Rossington said when he arrived at the post-match conference with the player of the match award. “The partnership with Roy was great for us. It was what helped the pressure get off of me.”

Meanwhile, it was not easy for the Avengers to defend the 200+ target as the pitch was favouring the batters. After a wide delivery in the first ball of the second innings, Mark Watt, the first centurion of the season, smashed Bipin Khatri for a maximum. With another six and a single in the other deliveries to rotate the strike with Priyank Panchal, Karnali started with 17 runs off the first over.

Panchal then hit two consecutive sixes in the third over bowled by Rishi Dhawan to ensure that a good partnership was coming with Watt. However, he departed in the first ball of the next over at 16 off 11, leaving the team at 34 runs. But Watt kept Karnali in the chase.

However, with pressure mounting on with the wickets falling on the other end, Watt got caught out in the deep cover point while attempting his sixth six. “Watt’s wicket was the most important one for us because he was batting very well,” Rossington said. “The pitch was favourable for the batsmen, so defending the big target was still not easy.”

Rossington is now the leading runscorer of the NPL Season 2 with 253 runs in five innings. He is followed by Watt (242 runs in six innings) and Ravi Bopara (207 runs in five innings).

Karnali’s skipper Sompal Kami, a key bowler for the senior Nepali men’s team, was the most expensive bowler for the Yaks. He gave away 50 runs in his four overs and remained wicketless. Nandan Yadav and Watt picked one wicket each.

Raju Basnyat, coach of the Yaks, said that the lack of a good partnership and momentum for the batters cost them the match.

“Set batsmen were returning to the pavilion in such a good batting wicket,” he said in the post-match conference. “We also did not have a good time on the fielding side. Similarly, domestic players could not perform well for us.”

Except for Pawan Sarraf (19 off 14) and Sompal Kami (13 off 9), none of the other Nepali players could score in double figures for the Yaks as they got bundled out at 167 runs in 19 overs. Lakshan and Dhawan bagged three wickets each while Kiran Thagunna, Sandeep Chhetri and Kushal Bhurtel picked one each for the Avengers as they won by 34 runs.

The win has propelled Pokhara to the fourth position in the points table with four points from two wins in five matches. Meanwhile, after the fifth loss in six matches, the Yaks are out of the playoffs hope.

“Still, we will be playing our last match to win,” Basnyat said. “The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) has been organising tournaments regularly. But more tournaments should be held at the provincial, district and club levels. It will allow domestic players to be in a better form for the NPL, where they will learn more against the experienced players coming from around the world.”

First win for defending champions

Janakpur Bolts started their title defence with a loss against Kathmandu Gorkhas in the opener of the second season. After that, it seemed that the team, despite former West Indies great Shivnarine Chanderpaul as the head coach, lost their momentum.

The Bolts then suffered defeats against Biratnagar Kings, Pokhara and Sudurpaschim Royals before facing Chitwan Rhinos. Backed by the Bolts Army who arrived at the TU International Cricket Stadium in good numbers, Janakpur did not see the Bolts Army’s banner at the parapets on Tuesday.

“It seems they were also dissatisfied with us as we kept losing,” Bolts’ Anil Kumar Sah said in the post-match conference after the team’s first win of the season that came against Chitwan Rhinos in the first match of Tuesday. “But we are sure they were supporting us from other places, and we know they will come to the stadium again.”

Sah, who missed the previous match against the arch-rivals Sudurpaschim on November 29, was playing without the captaincy for the first time in the NPL. Led by experienced Wayne Parnell, Sah announced his comeback in style on Tuesday as he smashed 61 off 36 to help the team defeat the Rhinos by six wickets while chasing 177 runs.

Even the 177-run target, which the Rhinos put on the back of a 112-run first-wicket partnership between Dawid Malan and Arjun Saud, felt insufficient as the Bolts chased it with 15 balls remaining. Saud departed at 52 off 39 while Malan fell as the fourth wicket in 18.2 overs. When Malan (80 off 54) departed, the Rhinos were at 156/4.

“It seems we fell short of some runs while batting first,” Malan said in the post-match conference. “We have a good batting order, and we can do better with this. We have seen it previously, and we still have two matches to go in the league stage.”

Saif Zaib, Bopara and Routela were in single figures, while Kushal Malla (30 off 14) was the only one who pushed the Rhinos further after the departure of the two openers.

In turn, Janakpur saw two half-centuries. Opener Maaz Sadaqat scored 63 off 30 alongside Sah’s 61 off 36. And a decent play from Aasif Sheikh (18 off 18), Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton (11 off 9) and Aditya Mahata (18 off 7) saw the team register their first win.

Numerically, the Bolts and Rhinos still have the chance for the playoffs, similar to Pokhara and Lumbini.

Biratnagar Kings and Lumbini Lions will be playing in the only match of Wednesday. A win for the Kings against the Lions means that they will qualify for the playoffs.