Defending champions Nepal Police Club posted a record total against Armed Police Force Club in the eighth edition of the Men’s PM Cup on Tuesday.

APF won the toss and skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel elected to field first at the Upper Mulpani Cricket Ground.

Paudel’s decision to bowl first bore fruit as Kushal Bhurtel (4 off 6) departed in the very first over. However, after that, Paudel should have lamented the decision.

Police batters then started building partnerships, which were difficult for APF to break.

A 92-run partnership for the second wicket between Amit Shrestha and Dinesh Kharel, a 47-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Rashid Khan and Shankar Rana, a 76-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Rana and Aarif Sheikh and a 54-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Gulshan Kumar Jha and Dilsad Ali saw APF post 355/9 in 50 overs.

With the total, Police shattered APF’s eight-year-old record—339/6 against Madhesh on June 4, 2018—in the Men’s PM Cup history.

While Ali stayed not out at 51 off 30 for Police, skipper Aarif (50 off 42), Kharel (60 off 52) and Rana (61 off 54) smashed individual fifties before departing.

Khan (44 off 42), Shrestha (39 off 39) and Jha (23 off 28) also contributed with decent scores.

Kamal Singh Airee and Amar Routela picked two wickets each, while Nandan Yadav, Paudel and Yuvraj Khatri claimed one each for APF.

In turn, APF’s batting order fumbled early on.

They lost their two openers—Dipak Bohara (4 off 5) and Aasif Sheikh (18 off 12)—cheaply, while the middle order, comprising Paudel (11 off 28), Sundeep Jora (24 off 36) and Puran BK (20 off 65), also could not contribute sufficiently.

A 49-run partnership for the ninth-wicket between Yadav and Airee was the only time when APF appeared good with the bat. Airee (35 off 32) departed as the ninth wicket while Yadav (44 off 55) stayed not out as APF were bundled out at 170 runs in 44 overs.

Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi picked three wickets against APF, while Karan KC, Khan and Kharel took two each. Sagar Dhakal also claimed one.

KC bowled three maiden overs and gave away only 21 runs in his eight overs. Rajbanshi and Dhakal were also equally economical, conceding only 28 runs and 22 runs in 10 overs and eight overs, respectively.

Similar to APF, Gandaki also fell victim to the decision of bowling first.

Big scores from Ashutosh Ghiraiya (59 off 87), Ishan Pandey (71 off 61) and Shubh Kansakar (44 off 28) saw Bagmati post 294/8 in the first innings.

In response, Gandaki could not bat well and keep the chase interesting.

Youngster Arjun Kumal was the only Gandaki batter to give Bagmati bowlers a challenge.

Opening at the non-striker end with Gaurav BK, Kumal was the last wicket to fall for Gandaki; he was bowled by Bagmati’s captain Sandeep Lamichhane in 31.5 overs.

Gandaki were then bundled out at 124 runs, with Kumal scoring 74 off 90 alone.

Subash Bhandari (29 off 48) was the only other Gandaki batter to reach double figures; three Gandaki batters got out at 2 and five others departed for a duck.

On Wednesday, Karnali will face Koshi in Janakpur and Madhesh will host Sudurpaschim in Birgunj.