Baitadi had defeated Region No 3 Kathmandu in the inaugural match and registered six wickets win over Region No 2 Birgunj in the second match. [break]
Man-of-the-match Bhim Sarki´s five wickets haul helped Baitadi book the ticket to final. Winning the toss, Baitadi scored 220\9 in the 40-over match. Janakpur managed to score 195 runs losing all wickets in 30.3 overs.
Baitadi´s openers Deependra Chand and Tekendra Mal gave a flying start with 72-run partnership for the first wicket. Chand struck 38 runs off 42 balls that included six boundaries before being caught and bowled by Rabin Gupta.
Mal and Purna Bahadur Singh shared 42-run partnership for the second wicket. Mal gave away his wicket for 69 runs off 74 balls with eight boundaries. Singh firmly batted until the end of innings but other batsmen could not provide him good support.
Singh and Neerak Pokhrel shared 55 runs partnership for the last wicket and took the team in a strong position. Singh was unbeaten for 68 runs off 65 balls with seven boundaries and two huge sixes while Pokhrel, 13, was not out with 12 runs off 20 balls.
Rajeev Yadav grabbed four wickets conceding 43 runs for Janakpur. Yadhav bowled Deependra Thapa in the third ball of the 33rd over and made Manoj Chand his next victim. Binod Dhami defended the next ball. Ajay Paswan grabbed three wickets, including two in a row.
In its run chase, Janakpur made a dismal start as it lost first wicket without opening score. Janakpur had lost three wickets with only 35 runs on board. Sasibhusan Mishra and Rakesh Kumar Kamat shared 67-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Bhim Sarki bowled Kamat on 44 runs off 32 balls and broke the partnership. Mishra and Anil Sah shared 42-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Mishra gave away his wicket for 34 runs off 43 balls. Sah scored 26 runs off 27 balls.
Jagdish Chand grabbed three wickets while Manoj Chand and Neeraj Pokhrel took a wicket each for Baitadi.
In another match played at TU Ground, Kirtipur, Region No 1 Biratnagar defeated Region No 5 Nepalgunj by three wickets to keep its hope of moving into the final afloat .
Biratnagar and Region No 4 Bhairahawa have equal four points each but Bhairahawa still has a match in hand. If Bhairahawa loses the match against Pokhara by a huge difference on Wednesday, both Pokhara and Biratnagar will get a chance in the final. In such situation, the finalist with be decided by net run rate. Bhairahawa has + 1.61 while Biratnagar and Pokhara has the net run rate of + 1.209 and - 0.874 respectively.
Winning the toss, Nepalgunj opted to bat first and scored 130 runs losing all the wickets in 29.1 overs. Rabin Thapa was the highest scorer with 32 runs off 22 balls that included four boundaries and a huge six. Man-of-the-match Rohit Kumar Singh grabbed four wickets and Heman Rai took three.
Chasing a moderate target of 131 runs, Biratnagar successfully achieved the target in 28.1 overs losing seven wickets. Rajiv BK scored 39 runs off 47 balls while Lokesh Jha scored 26 runs.
Aakash Bista took two wickets while Anup Neupane, Ajay Shahani and Rabin Thapa grabbed a wicket each.
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