NPC crawl into final

Kathmandu, June 6

Nepal Police Club outplayed Nepal APF Club by five wickets to advance to the final of the Expert Prime Minister Cup One Day Cricket Tournament here at the TU Stadium today.

Batting first, the APF were bowled out for the all-time lowest score of 41 runs in 22.1 overs before NPC reached the target in 9.3 overs but not before losing five wickets. NPC will face another departmental side Tribhuvan Army Club — who defeated Province-3 by 117 runs in the first semi-final match yesterday — in Saturday’s final.

NPC skipper Manjeet Shrestha invited the APF to take the first strike and his bowlers backed his decision. None of the APF bowlers was able to score in double figures with opener Sharad Vesawkar and Prithu Baskota being the top scorers with seven runs each.

Man-of-the-match Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi was the pick of the NPC bowlers taking 4-8 from six overs.

Kushal Bhurtel (3-7) and Sagar Dhakal (3-15) shared six wickets between them. Aarif Sheikh, who remained wicketless in his three-over spell, was the most expensive bowler at an economy of 3.00.

In reply, NPC struggled to chase down the low total and they were reduced to 23-5 inside seven overs. Openers Sunil Dhamala (three) and Anil Kumar Sah (naught) were already back to the pavilion with just four runs on the board, while Amit Shrestha (one), Dlip Nath (two) and Dipendra Singh Airee (13) were also dismissed cheaply.

Pawan Sarraf and Aarif Sheikh (one) then took the team home adding 22 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket. Sarraf remained unbeaten on 21 off 14 balls that included four boundaries.

APF skipper Basant Regmi took 3-20 and Sharad Vesawkar claimed 2-22.

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