Agni Air fly high with T20 crown

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Agni Air lifted the first Wai Wai Corporate T20 Premier League Cricket title with a seven-wicket victory over Yeti Airlines here at the TU Stadium today.

Batting first, Yeti could muster 103-9. In reply, Gaurav Jain scored an unbeaten half-century as Agni raced to victory losing three wickets in 17.4 overs.

Agni lost openers Nasir Sheikh (12) and Prajwal Shrestha (11) inside six overs with 32 runs on the board. Gaurav, however, stayed calm playing some delightful strokes on his way to 42-ball 61. Gaurav added 45 runs for the third wicket with Rahul Bansal (nine) to take Agni close to target before an unbeaten 28-run stand with Pranav Malla (seven).

Man-of-the-match Gaurav hammered 10 boundaries. Mohammad Rafi took two wickets, while Prafulla Vaidya had one scalp for Yeti Airlines. The match winning knock from Gaurav came after Agni rode on his disciplined bowling to restrict Yeti to a low total.

Gaurav put Yeti in the back foot reducing them to 28-2 by the sixth over with prized wickets of opener Prafulla Vaidya (two) and Sandeep Shrestha (eight). Ravi Sharma and Narendra KC tried to consolidate the innings with a 39-run stand for the third wicket before Saurav KC dismissed both the batsmen in the same over.

Ravi made a 40-ball 25 and Narendra contributed 15 off 19 with both batsmen hitting two boundaries each. Divas Prajapati was Yeti’s second best contributor with 19 runs from 24 deliveries.

Gaurav returned with the figures of 2-14 and Saurav took 3-14 in their four-over spells. Avinash Giri claimed one wicket, while three of the Yeti batsmen were run out.

Gaurav won the man-of-the-series award for his 212 runs and four wickets throughout the tournament. Saroj Maharjan was declared the best bowler for picking up seven wickets, while Yeti’s Ravi (162 runs) was declared the best batsman.