Mandal blasted a six and 13 fences in his 106 run knock off 113 balls. [break]Mandal also became the fourth player to hit century following Raju Khadka, Bindo Das and Mehboob Alam after regional structure in domestic cricket.
In the match played at TU cricket ground, Kirtipur, Janakpur surpassed the target of 186 run in 43.2 overs. Mandal who completed half century in 68 balls achieved century facing 112 deliveries.
Mandal played an 84 run partnership with Chandan Jha for the third wicket after Pravas Jha was sent back to pavilion without any run on board and Hari Shankhar Shah was out for 16. Chandan contributed 22 runs off 64 with a boundary.
Raj Mohammad scored 22 off 26 with three boundaries pairing with Mandal. Roshan Thakur and skipper Kumar Prasun returned to the pavilion without opening accounts. Mandal hit a boundary off skipper Niraj Basnet for the winning run.
Prasanna Shakya and Dipankar Yonjan grabbed two wickets each for Kathmandu while Rupesh Srivastav, Keshav Raj Panta and Niraj Bhattarai pocketed one wicket each.
Earlier, electing to bat first, Kathmandu was bowled out for 185 runs in 46.2 overs. Shakya and Srivastav put up some resistance as Kathmandu had lost seven wickets for 117 runs. The duo played 36 runs partnership for the eighth wicket. Shakya scored 36 off 32 that included three boundaries and two sixes. Srivastav scored 20 runs.
Opener Niraj Bhattarai collected 38 off 57 while Indra Kamal Manandhar (21) and Niraj Basnet (20) contributed for the team. Mohammad, Prasun and Avishek Jha of Janakpur claimed two wickets each while Ramdayal Mandal, Roshan Thakur and Mandal shared one wicket each.
In the match played at Pulchowk Engineering ground, the all round performance of national player Rahul BK inspired Pokhara to a win over Biratnagar. The left handed spinner claimed four wickets to restrict Biratnagar for 167 runs in 40.4 over. In the run chase, BK scored an unbeaten 39 runs as Pokhara reached the target in 41.3 overs.
BK who used to play from Region No 4 Bhairahawa had featured from Nepal Police Club last year. But he tied up with Pokhara since the Sixth National Games after Police dismissed its cricket team.
Mehboob Alam was one of the victim of Biratnagar who scored the highest 36 runs for the team. Alam struck four fences for his initial 16 runs and later a six. Pushpa Thapa scored 34 runs off 43 that included six boundaries.
Somesh Yadav (14), Ajay Rajbanshi (12), Bidhan Goshami (19), skipper Manji Shrestha (8) contributed for Biratnagar that lost its opener Sunny Pun for four runs on board. Other than BK, skipper Dipesh Khatri, Shiva Shrestha, Sushil Kadel, Nischal Pandey and Dipesh Shrestha claimed one wicket each for Pokhara.
Pokhara established the base for an easy win after Nischal Pandey and Arjun Raj Adhikari scored 78 for the first wicket in 21 overs. Pandey scored 44 runs and Adhikari 49 runs. Along with BK, Dipesh Khatri remained unbeaten for 26 runs.
Wednesday´s match
APF Vs Biratnagar @ Pulchowk
Baitadi Vs Pokhara @ Kirtipur
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