Province 4 stunned Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club by one wicket in a last-ball thriller to get into the pole position to reach the semi-finals of the Manmohan Memorial Cup One Day National on Saturday. 

Electing to bat first,  a lower middle order resurgence led APF to 215-9 in 50 overs. Province 4 remained in the heels of APF after opener Anil Gurung and skipper Bidhan Shrestha made half centuries but needed their last pair of Mekh Bahadur Sen and Raju Gurung to reach 219-9 in exactly the last ball of the game. 

APF fought back hard to reduce Province 4 to 208-9 in 47.3 overs. But Sen (seven) and Raju (four) kept their cool to collect the required runs. Province 4 needed one run from the last ball and Sen struck the winning boundary to break APF hearts. 

The victory can now put Province 4 in the semi-finals provided they beat Province 1 by a huge-margin on Sunday. Only the winners from the three-team pool make it to the last four. APF had beaten Province 1 by 92 runs in their first pool match on Friday. 

Anil gave a solid reply to APF after he shared 47 runs for first wicket with Suman Ghimire (17). He added another 48 runs with captain and man-of-the-match Shrestha who made a crucial 81-ball 61 with 10 hits to the fence. APF sniffed victory when they got rid of Anil followed by the wicket of Manjil Neupane (31) until the last pair snatches the game for Province 4.

Anil made 64 off 90 balls with 10 boundaries. Anil Sah was the pick of the APF bowlers taking 4-43 from 10 overs. 

Earlier, APF were unable to build big partnerships although the batsmen got good starts. Sah (26) and Aasif Sheikh (18) shared 42 runs for the second wicket, while Bhuwan Karki and Amar Singh Routela (28) added 44 runs for the seventh wicket. Karki top scored for them with a 60-ball 36 hitting three boundaries. Ahmed provided the late lift with 30 not out off 24 with two fours and a six.

Airee (27) was APF’s another notable contributor. Kishor Mahato, Santosh Neupane and Amrit Gurung took two wickets each for Province 4.