Nepal Police Club (NPC) defended their Men’s PM Cup title successfully by defeating Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) by six wickets in the final played at Siddhartha Cricket Stadium on Saturday. It was the third consecutive edition where TAC finished as the runner-up.

NPC won the toss and invited TAC to bat first. With the top five batters walking back in single digits, in-at-seven Basir Ahamad, with 86 off 104, powered TAC to 154 runs in 43 overs.

In response, NPC chased it in 25.2 overs, losing four wickets. NPC’s top three batters–Kushal Bhurtel (61 off 70), Amit Shrestha (39 off 38) and Dilip Nath (31 off 24*)—were the heroes with the bat.

NPC and TAC have been two major competitors in the tournament since its first edition in 2017. The two teams were the joint winners of the inaugural edition while TAC won the tournament once, in 2021; APF won it in 2018 and 2022.

It was a chance for TAC to win their second title on Saturday as they had defeated NPC just two days ago, in the final game of the league format.

The win put a full stop on NPC’s 18-game winning streak in the tournament; NPC had won the sixth edition as unbeaten and were winning every game until facing TAC on March 27. Yet, NPC denied a win in the final for TAC, again.

TAC have lost in the final of the PM Cup five times now. They had lost the title against NPC in the sixth edition last year, while their shot at the trophy was declined by the Armed Police Force (APF) Club in the fifth edition in 2022. TAC also finished as the runner-up in the second and third editions in 2018 and 2019, losing to APF and NPC, respectively.

Bowlers’ performances

Alongside helping his team to the fourth title, NPC’s Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, the left-arm spinner, set multiple records in the seventh edition.

While he bagged only one wicket in the final game, his total wickets in the seventh edition reached 41 in 10 games. Previously, the highest number of wickets for a bowler in a season of the PM Cup (with 10 teams in a single round robin) was 30; the feat was reached by two bowlers—Rajbanshi and Surya Tamang.

Similarly, Rajbanshi was 10 wickets ahead in the race for best bowler this season. He was followed by TAC’s Shahab Alam, another left-arm spinner, with 31 wickets in 10 games. With 41 and 31 wickets in 10 games, Rajbanshi and Alam also became the only bowlers to have more than 100 wickets in the tournament’s history.

Likewise, Bagmati’s Rijan Dhakal, Karnali’s Dipendra Rawat and Lumbini’s Ajay Chauhan followed the two spinners with 23, 22 and 19 wickets, respectively.

Run scorers

The PM Cup did not see any team score 300+ runs in the 50-over game in the first edition. After that, it was the seventh edition in 2025 where there were no scores over 300.

NPC amassed the highest total this season, posting 297/8 against Bagmati on March 20. The highest-ever total in the tournament came in 2018 when APF took their score to 339/6, and it was also against Madhesh, then Province No. 2.

Individually, the highest run scorer this year was Gandaki’s Arjun Kumal. Kumal, Nepal’s former U-19 player, scored 374 runs in nine games. He was one of the only four centurions alongside TAC’s Trit Raj Das, Bagmati’s Ishan Pandey and Sudurpaschim’s Kiran Thagunna.

While Kumal, Das and Pandey had one century, Thagunna had two. Still, Thagunna finished fifth on the list for most runs.

Das and Pandey, with 365 and 363 runs in 10 and 9 games, respectively, were second and third in the list. TAC’s Ahamad, with 338 runs in 9 innings (10 games), was fourth, while Thagunna had 337 runs in nine games. Thagunna also had the highest individual score in a game—121 not out against Gandaki on March 10.

National stars in shadow

There were only a few names of national stars in the leading list of wicket takers and run scorers as uncapped players ruled with the bat and ball.

For instance, Nepal’s senior pacers Sompal Kami and Karan KC bagged 15 and 13 wickets for TAC and NPC, respectively.

Similarly, in batting, Bhurtel and Dipendra Singh Airee were ranked seventh and eighth for most runs with 325 and 308 runs, respectively.

Anil Kumar Sah (226 runs), Aarif Sheikh (223 runs), Aasif Sheikh (211 runs), Rohit Kumar Paudel (204 runs) were further down the list.

Now, the top four teams—NPC, TAC, APF and Bagmati—will meet each other in the multi-day Jay Trophy (Elite Cup) cricket tournament after some months.