Mahendranagar United’s Avinash Bohara bats against Rupandehi Challengers during their Ruslan DPL match in Dhangadhi on Thursday. Photo: Udipt Singh Chhetry / THT
Dhangadhi, February 21
Mahendranagar United defeated Rupandehi Challengers by one wicket in the eliminator match of the third Ruslan Dhangadhi Premier League here at the proposed Fapla International Stadium today.
Batting first, the United posted 115-9 in their allotted 20 overs before the Challengers reached 114-9.
United will now take on Kathmandu Goldens in the second qualifier on Friday for a place in the final.
CYC Attariya have already advanced to the final beating Goldens in the first qualifier match on Wednesday.
The Challengers were nicely cruising towards the victory before a dramatic collapse in the middle order and late in the innings saw them out of the tournament.
The Challengers needed five runs from the last six balls with four wickets in hand and they managed just three runs losing three wickets from Abinash Bohara’s over. Openers Sandeep Sunar and Sumeet Maharjan put 26 runs in 4.2 overs before the former was dismissed for 14-ball 13 that included two boundaries and a six.
Maharjan and Babar Hayat then added another 26 runs for the second wicket before they departed in the space of four runs. Challengers lost two more wickets in quick succession to be 66-5 inside 14 overs.
Hayat scored 28 off 29 balls hitting two fours and a six.
Binod Bhandari and Pradeep Singh Airee shared a 37-run partnership for the sixth wicket to take the team total to three figures. When Bhandari was dismissed in the second ball of the 19th over, the Challengers needed just 13 runs from 10 balls with four wickets in hand.
Bhandari struck one each four and six in his 21-ball 23.
Pradee Airee and skipper Basant Regmi collected eight runs from the four balls of the penultimate over to take the team within five runs of the victory. But the dramatic final over swung the match to United. After facing a dot ball, Regmi collected one run from the second ball and Airee could not get any run from the third ball.
Siddhant Lohani ran Airee out in the fourth ball and Bohara had Bikram Sob caught by Rohit Paudel in the next ball. Airee struck four boundaries in his 20-ball 28. The team was still in need of three runs to win the match with Challengers skipper Regmi and Lalit Singh Bhandari at the centre. After completing a single, Regmi pushed for the second and he was run out by Sahab Alam.
Abinash Bohara returned with 2-13 and he also earned the manof-the-match award, while Mohammad Naveed, Saurav Dhakal and Siddhant Lohani claimed one wicket each.
Earlier, skipper Sharad Vesawkar top scored for the United with 29 off 38 balls that included two fours.
Subramanian Anand struck three fours and a six in his 13-ball 20, while Amar Singh Routela scored 19 off 20 balls hitting one each four and six.
Mohammad Naveed scored 18 off 15 balls hitting two sixes, while Aarif Sheikh and Abinash Bohara contributed 11 runs each. Lalit Singh Bhandari was the pick of the Challengers bowlers taking 4-28, while Anil Kharel claimed 3-26 and Basant Regmi took two wickets.
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Written by Sandeep
This news first appeared on https://thehimalayantimes.com/sports/united-make-it-to-second-qualifier/ under the title “United make it to second qualifier”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
