Captain Gyanendra Malla´s century helped APF thrash Region No 8 (Pokhara) by 154 runs at the TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur on Sunday while Janakpur beat Region No 2 (Birgunj) by 80 runs at the Pulchowk Engineering Ground, Lalitpur despite Amit Shrestha´s century for Birgunj.[break]
With the win, APF won all four matches of Group A while Janakpur registered victories in all the three group stage matches of Group B.
APF elected to bat first and put up 288/4 in 50 overs as Malla scored unbeaten 109 runs off 133 balls, including 11 boundaries and four sixes. Sanjay Shrestha contributed 83 runs off 58 balls, including seven boundaries and four sixes and Sharad Vesawkar added 51 runs off 71 balls for APF. Likewise, Sunam Gautam chipped in with unbeaten 22 runs. APF was at 29/2 in 4.6 overs but Malla and Shrestha put up an 89-run partnership for the third wicket to guide APF to a mammoth total. Likewise, Malla and Vesawkar put up 123 runs for the fourth wicket.
Deepesh Khatri took two wickets for Pokhara while Deepesh Shrestha, Nischal Pandey and Arjun Raj Adhikari claimed a wicket each.
Chasing the total, Pokhara reached 134/9 in 50 overs. Rijan Prajoo (37 runs) was the highest contributor for Pokhara. Sanjam Regmi and Basanta Regmi took two wickets each while Amrit Bhattarai, Sunam Gautam, Subash Khakurel and man-of-the-match Gyanendra Malla claimed a wicket each.
Meanwhile, Janakpur elected to bat and scored 287/8 in 50 overs. It then bowled out Birgunj for 207 runs in 40.2 overs.
Man-of-the-match Hari Shankar Sah scored 94 runs off 120 balls including 12 boundaries while Raj Mohammad added 64 runs off 60 balls including nine boundaries. Opener Anil Mandal chipped in with 38 runs while Birgunj gave away 55 runs as extras.
Avinash Karn and Jatta Shankar Sarraf claimed two wickets each.
Amit Shrestha scored 101 runs off 98 balls including 11 boundaries and two sixes for Birgunj but Anil Mandal claimed four wickets and Kumar Prasun took two wickets to defeat Birgunj by 80 runs. Rabin Gurung (21 runs) was the second highest contributor for Birgunj.
Today´s matches
Biratnagar Vs Bhairahawa @ Kirtipur
Kathmandu Vs Nepalgunj @ Pulchowk
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