Rain deprived an unfortunate Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) of the Prime Minister Cup after the departmental side was forced to share the trophy with archrivals Nepal Police Club at the TU Stadium on Thursday.

In what looked like a repeat of their league stage game, TAC once again dominated the game with the ball bundling out NPC for just 126 runs in 45.1 overs. NPC were also skittled out for just 113 runs in the league stage game before the Armymen cantered to a seven-wicket victory.

But luck was not with TAC as an hour of rain forced the abandonment of the game when they were batting at 7-1 in 2.3 overs. The match needed to be completed for at least 20 overs to produce results and the two departmental sides were declared the joint winners.

The groundsmen worked for over an hour after the rain stopped but the umpires declared the ground unplayable to have a possible one and half hour game. The highest cash prized tournament had a sour end with both teams sharing Rs 3 million of reward. 

The winners were supposed to receive a cash purse of Rs 2 million and runners-up would have got Rs 1 million had there been a result. TAC skipper Binod Bhandari, who has seen his side beaten by NPC in two previous finals of the Ruslan Twenty20 National, was left helpless. 

“We had plans to stop them (NPC) inside 140 runs and our bowlers perfectly did that job. But if the umpires say there cannot be any match then we cannot help. We thought that we were easily going to win this final but rain had other ideas,” said Bhandari.

Sunil Dhamala top scored for NPC with a 90-ball 32 with two fours and a six, while Siddhant Lohani was out for 20 off 42 with a six and a four. Jitendra Mukhiya took 4-28 from 8.1 overs and spinner Sushan Bhari Shrestha got 3-19 from nine overs. 

Sagar Pun, who took 2-35 in the final, collected the man-of-the-series award that won him a cash purse of Rs 100,000, while Saurav Khanal of Western Region and Bhari were declared the best batsman and bowler respectively. The two got Rs 50,000 apiece. Losing semi-finalists Nepal APF Club and Western got Rs 50,000 each.