sports buBinod Bhandari scored a century as Tribhuvan Army Club defeated Madhesh Province by 126 runs to launch their Prime Minister Cup Men’s National Cricket Tournament in style in Kirtipur on Monday.

Holders Armed Police Force kept their defence of the title on track with a six-wicket victory over Koshi Province, while Sudurpaschim also made a winning start beating Lumbini by five wickets.

At the TU Cricket Ground, Army captain Bhandari smashed 113 runs off 93 balls to help his side post a massive 320 total after being sent in to bat first, despite Ranjit Kumar’s five-wicket haul.

Army made a good start to their innings with openers Imran Sheikh (26) and Santosh Karki (42) partnering for a 53-run opening stand in the powerplay. But spinner Kumar struck back at regular intervals to chock Army to 102-4 after 21 overs.

Kumar got the breakthrough wicket of Sheikh in the 11th over before dismissing Bhim Sharki (18) in the 17th over, Karki in the fourth ball of the 21st over and Sandeep Rajali (0) in the successive delivery.

But Bhandari resisted Madhesh’s bowling attack and put on a 132-run stand with national team star Kushal Malla, who made 37 runs off 44 balls, to anchor the Army’s innings.

Malla fell in the 41st over, caught by Rajesh Yadav off Bishal Patel (2-84) but Bhandari added another 20 with Bibek Yadav before Kumar had him caught by Rajesh in the 44th over.

Bandari’s innings featured nine fours and six sixes.

Bibek then worked with Basir Ahamad (16) and Sompal Kami (6) to take Army to a huge total.

In the run chase, Pawan Sarraf scored a half-century but Shahab Ala’s 4-37 restricted Madhesh to 194 all out in 49 overs.

Sarraf hit 65 runs off 83 balls cracking seven fours and three sixes to steady the Madhesh chase after openers Mayan Yadav (34) and Anil Sah (12) collapsed to Kami (2-42) and Jitendra Mukhiya (1-23) respectively.

But Alam got rid of Sarraf in the 37th overs before cleaning up lower order batters Arniko Yadav (2), Bishal Patel (17), Pradip Paswan (0).

Malla then trapped Ranjit (2) leg before to wrap up the comprehensive victory.

Madhesh had defeated Koshi by seven wickets in their opening match.

-Second win-

APF are at the top of the 10-team standings after pulling off their second win in as many matches, thanks to an all round display from national team captain Rohit Paudel at the Mulpani Cricket Ground.

Paudel, also the APF captain, elected to field first and took three wickets to restrict Koshi to 135-10 before cracking a half-century to guide the departmental side to a comfortable victory.

Abinash Bohara also returned a match figures of 3-13 in his impressive 8.3-over spell that also included the prized wicket of Firdosh Ansari, who had presented a late challenge to APF with a 85-ball 50.

In reply, Paudel scored an aggressive knock of 53-ball 80 that included nine boundaries and three maximums to lead APF to 136-4 in 19.1 overs.

Opener Prajwal Shahi made 22 and Sumit Maharjan contributed 20 runs for APF.

-Flying start-

Lumbini had defeated Gandaki Province in their opening match but could not continue their momentum against Sudurpaschim at the Siddhartha Stadium.

Narayan Joshi was the key player for Sudurpaschim. Joshi took 3-36 to limit Lumbini to 158 in 49 overs before his 28 not out (30) and a fifth-wicket 49-run partnership with Sher Malla 42 not out (44) to guide his side to a victory.

Prajjwol Thapa (42) provided the highest score and Avishek Gautam took three wickets for Lumbini.