A star-studded Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) and Machhapuchhre Cricket Club (MCC) of Pokhara entered the quarter-finals of the National Inter-club Youth Twenty20 Cricket Championship at the TU grounds on Thursday.

TAC hammered Nepal Engineering College (NEC) by 107 runs on the back of match-winning performances from Jitendra Mukhiya and Sharad Vesawkar. MCC defeated G-Force Cricket Academy by 26 runs to upstage a ferocious knock from former U-19 cricket Hasim Ansari. TAC posted 160-5 after national team star Vesawkar smashed a 48-ball 59 with eight boundaries. Anil Mandal (20) and Sagar Pun (29) also made runs in double figures. Palden Lama picked up 3-25 from four overs for NEC.

With an experienced bowling lineup to play against, NEC were restricted for just 53 runs in 16.1 overs after Mukhiya demolished the middle order returning the figures of 4-12 from four overs. Chandra Sawad (3-8) and Avinash Karn (2-6) also shared five wickets between them. Nishant Gadhtoa (17) and Pramod Acharya (15) were the only NEC batsmen to reach double figures.

In the second match of the day, MCC made a tournament-high 162-3 before stopping G-Force at 136-5 in 20 overs. G-Force innings revolved around Ansari, who shared 73 runs for the second wicket with Saurav Pela (16). But after he was dismissed, G-Force innings came to a halt. Ansari clobbered seven fours and two sixes in his 39-ball 63, while Samir Nepal was G-Force’s second best contributor with a 19-ball 22 that included three fours and a six.

Earlier, Deepesh Khatri and Aakash Thapa (21) provided the impetus to MCC with a 56-run opening wicket stand. Khatri made 40 off 42. Raju Poudel and Karan KC (23) then shared 54 runs for the third wicket guiding MCC towards a big total. Poudel slammed 44 runs off 25 balls. Ishan Singh Baniya also made nine-ball 21 runs.