Rashid Khan scored an unbeaten century as Nepal Police Club defeated Bagmati Province by 68 runs to make a flying start to their Prime Minister Cup Men’s National Cricket Tournament campaign in Kirtipur on Saturday.

Aarif Sheikh also cracked a half-century to offer a much needed support to Khan after Police’s top order collapsed at the TU Cricket Ground.

Police opted to bat first after winning the toss but were in deep trouble at 5-72 in 17 overs, thanks to Surya Tamang’s venomous spin that strangled Amit Shrestha (1), opener Sunil Dhamala (20) and Arjun Saud (20). Dhamala’s opening partner Dilip Nath also could not cope with the Bagmati attack and was the first to fall when Rijan Dhakal bowled him in the seventh over.

But Khan hit 106 not out and put on a 120-run stand with Sheikh, who made 57 runs off 66 balls, for the sixth wicket to anchor Police innings.

It was Khan’s first career century in any format. Khan has played for the national team only once—during the South Asian Games in 2019. Khan cracked nine fours and six sixes.

After Sheikh fell in the 41st over, caught by Rit Gautam off Sonu Devkota, captain Dipendra Singh Airee (21) and Karan KC (15) joined Khan to help Police post 282-8 in 50 overs. Aerie and KC were both dismissed by Dhakal.

Sheikh’s innings featured five boundaries and one six.

In reply, Ashutosh Ghiraiya and Ishan Pandey shared a 96-run partnership for the opening wicket to lay a strong foundation for Bagmati’s chase. Ghiraiya smacked 92 runs off 87 balls that included nine hits to the boundary and six maximums, while Pandey made 44 runs off 48 balls.

But, Bagmati could not chase down the target after their middle and lower order failed to exploit the confident start.

After Khan grabbed the breakthrough wicket of Pandey in the 18 overs, Bagmati’s batting order fizzled out dramatically failing to stick up with Ghiraiya and were all out for 214 in 42.3 overs, with Sagar Dhakal picking up three scalps.

Sonu Devkota’s 19 was the third highest score of the Bagmati’s innings.

KC, Khan and Airee took three wickets each for Police.

At Mulpani, Madhesh Province also made a winning start after defeating Koshi Province by seven wickets.

Madhesh sent Koshi to bat first and limited them to 127 all out in 41 overs, credit to some top bowling performances by Pradip Paswan (3-15), Rajesh Yadav (2-11), Ranjit Kumar (2-23) and Pawan Sarraf (2-26).

Firdosh Ansari (41) and captain Ankit Subedi (40) were the only batters to reach the double digit figures for Koshi.

In reply, opener Anil Sah hit 88 runs and captain Harishankar Shah made 24 (23) balls to comfortably lead Madhesh to 129-3 and victory in just 20.1 overs. Sah hit 14 fours and three sixes in his aggressive 54-ball knock.

Lumbini Province also started their PM Cup with a four-wicket victory over Gandaki Province at the Siddhartha Cricket Stadium.

Ajay Chauhan was the target man for Lumbini. Chauhan took 5-16 to restrict Gandaki to 111 in 34.4 overs after Lumbini elected to field first.

Karan Pangeni’s 28 (62) provided the highest score for Gandaki.

Lumbini’s chase was made difficult by Gandaki’s Bipin Khatri (3-36) and Kamal Pariyar (3-25). But opener Mrinal Gurung’s 47 off 78 and Mohamad Hussain’s 21 (18) helped Lumbini pull off the chase in 28.2 overs.