The second edition of Jay Trophy, Nepal’s only multi-day domestic tournament, kicked off with a century by Bhim Sharki at the TU International Cricket Stadium in Kirtipur on Friday.

Sharki’s ton helped his team Tribhuvan Army Club take a 47-run lead at the end of the second innings against Nepal Police Club.

Army had won the toss and skipper Binod Bhandari elected to field first. Aakash Chand opened the bowling attack for Army and bowled a maiden in the first over with Kushal Bhurtel on the striker’s end for Police, the defending champions.

It took Bhurtel, who also opens for the Nepal men’s senior team, 16 balls to get his first run.

However, it was not only Bhurtel who was a victim of Army’s disciplined bowling. The struggle with the bat saw Police declare at 187/8 in 53.3 overs.

Further, all six bowlers used by Bhandari were effective. With Chand bagging the first wicket against Police in the form of Shrestha (10 off 22), Pawan Karki gave the second relief after getting Shankar Rana (3 off 32) caught out. Naren Saud got the most important wicket as he struck Bhurtel (30 off 73) leg before. Basir Ahmad and Shahab Alam also picked a wicket each, while Karki went on to pick four.

Kushal Malla was the only bowler who did not pick a wicket for Army. Malla bowled only one over and gave only three runs.

Meanwhile, from what would have been a bitter start with the bat for the defending champions, skipper Aarif Sheikh took the score up. Sheikh got 36 off 41. Rashid Khan (38 off 55) scored the highest run for Police in the first innings. But before Sheikh and Khan could do more, they both became the victims of Karki.

In turn, Police also did not let Army capitalise with the bat. At the end of 30 overs, Army were 150/7 as they had lost Trit Raj Das (14 off 19), Imran Sheikh (5 off 15), Ahmad (1 off 6), Kushal Malla (11 off 11), Santosh Karki (12 off 12) and Bhandari (12 off 14) for a low score.

But as wickets kept falling for Army, one man kept them in the game: Bhim Sharki. Sharki had reached his half-century in 58 deliveries, and the next 50 runs in 49 balls. Sharki became only the second player to get a century in the Jay Trophy after Mayan Yadav’s 106 in the inaugural edition.

After Naren Saud (31 off 26) departed as the seventh wicket, Sharki and Karki built a 64-run partnership for the eighth wicket to take the total to 234 in 40 overs. And with Karki (37 off 23) and Alam getting out in consecutive deliveries by Sagar Dhakal, Army declared at 234, leading by 47 runs.

Dhakal bagged six wickets in total as Sharki stood not out at 105 off 113. Alongside Dhakal, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi picked two while Bhurtel claimed one wicket against Army.

With time remaining, Police began their second innings. The play continued until seven overs, by which Police lost one wicket—Shrestha (4 off 3) struck leg before by Chand—and Bhurtel (12 off 16) and Rana (7 off 23) taking the score to 23/1.

With the defending champions beginning their campaign, another match of Jay Trophy had also started at Mulpani, where Bagmati Province faced Nepal APF Club at Lower/Upper Mulpani.

Even at Mulpani, the team winning the toss elected to field first. As a result, Ashutosh Ghiraiya and Rit Gautam came into the crease to open for Bagmati with the bat. Gautam returned soon as he was caught out in the spell of Amar Routela for a duck (0 off 7).

Ghiraiya then built a 68-run partnership with Shubh Kansakar (34 off 29) before the latter was caught behind by the safe hands of Aasif Sheikh in the 13th over. An over later, Ghiraiya (35 off 42) too joined them.

The middle order—captain Ishan Pandey (16 off 24), Uttam Magar (10 off 28) and Bipin Acharya (0 off 6)—could not do enough. Had it not been for the lower order—Bibek Magar (42 off 47), Rijan Dhakal (35 off 64) and Suyra Tamang (27 off 64)—Bagmati would have bowled out for a pretty low total.

It was after the wicket of Tamang in 54.5 overs that Bagmati, the only provincial team to make it to the Jay Trophy as the top four teams of the previous edition of the Men’s PM Cup, declared at 207/9.

Irshad Ahmad picked three wickets for APF while Yuvraj Khatri and skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel took two each. Abhishesh Gautam bagged one.

While the top order was failing to find its foot in both matches of Friday, APF, with a star-studded batting order, showed a difference. By the end of 10 overs, APF were hitting at an average of 7 runs per over.

Aasif (28 off 19) was the first wicket to fall for APF. His opening pair Deepak Bohara scored 38 off 42.

When Bohara departed, APF were 77/2 in 11.5 overs. And then came experienced Paudel and Sundeep Jora, and they built a 92-run partnership for the third wicket to take the total to 169.

Jora was at 61 off 48 when he was caught behind in 27.2 overs. Paudel was then alone as none of the other batters could reach double figures. Paudel stood not out at 87 off 113 as APF were bundled out in 49.2 overs. Meanwhile, APF were leading by 32 runs.

Rijan Dhakal bagged three for Bagmati, while Bipin Acharya and Surya Tamang took two each. Tilak Bhandari and Pandey also claimed one each.

The umpires called Bagmati to open their second innings before signaling ‘Stumps’ in 3.2 overs, when Surya Tamang (1 off 14) was caught by Jora in the spell of Paudel.

As per the tournament format, the four teams will play each other once in a single round-robin format across two days. The top two teams on the basis of points will play in the final, across three days.

If both teams fail to complete their innings in the given time, the one with a higher score will be considered as taking the lead.