KATHMANDU: Janakpur Bolts defeated Pokhara Avengers by nine runs in Sunday’s Nepal Premier League (NPL) match at the TU International Cricket Stadium in Kirtipur.
Batting first after Pokhara won the toss and elected to field, Janakpur posted 147 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their allotted 20 overs. In reply, Pokhara managed 138 runs for nine wickets, falling short of the 148-run target.
Janakpur’s Tritaraj Das was the leading scorer with 61 runs off 55 balls, while Avishek Tiwari contributed 24 runs off just 10 deliveries. Opener Moeen Ali added 21 runs from 16 balls before being dismissed by Shakib Al Hasan.
For Pokhara, Shakib claimed three wickets in his three overs, while Chamika Karunaratne took two. Mehidy Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin picked up one wicket each.
Chasing 148 runs for victory, Pokhara lost both openers cheaply. Dinesh Kharel scored three runs off nine balls, while Mehidy Hasan managed eight runs from four deliveries.
Captain Kushal Bhurtel top-scored for Pokhara with 35 runs off 24 balls. Bipin Acharya and Bipin Khatri contributed 20 and 17 runs, respectively, but their efforts were not enough to secure victory.
For Janakpur, Moeen Ali led the bowling attack with three wickets, while captain Harmeet Singh and Saif Hasan claimed two wickets each.
With Sunday’s victory, Janakpur moved up to second place in the points table with four points. Pokhara, meanwhile, remained seventh after suffering defeats in both of their opening matches.
The Nepal Premier League is a franchise-based Twenty20 cricket tournament organised annually by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN). The ongoing competition is the third edition of the tournament.
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