Maruti Suzuki-XI beat RMC Yodha‚ stay on top

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Maruti Suzuki-XI of Kathmandu climbed up the leaderboard of the Nepal Marwadi Cricket Super League with second successive win here at the Tribhuvan University Stadium today.

Maruti Suzuki-XI beat RMC Yodha of Birgunj by 26 runs. Electing to bat first, Maruti Suzuki-XI scored 169-7 and restricted RMC Yodha for 143-8 in 20 overs. Hitesh Dalmiya and Amol Sharma laid the foundation for the Suzuki Maruti-XI total putting on 86 runs for the first wicket. Hitesh scored a fiery 61 off 34 deliveries which included 11 boundaries while Amol made a fluent 21-ball 29. Jay Prakash Sarraf and Rahul Agrawal took two wickets each.

RMC made a shaky run chase after man-of-the-match Summit Sharma (4-12) dismissed openers Jay Prakash (one) and Mahesh Jatia (13) inside four overs. But Pawan Agrawal (51) led the fightback with a brilliant half century to revive the team’s hope. Sumit Kadmiya (25) and Krishna Soni (19) also made valuable runs but their efforts were too late for RMC to force the result in their favour.

In another match, Bagmati Chargers of Bhairahawa defeated Arihant Group of Biratnagar by two wickets. Despite the defeat Arihant stay second in the four-team standings with two points. Bagmati Chargers, who also have two points after the win, are third on inferior nett run rate. Winless RMC Yodha are bottom of the table after back-to-back defeats.

Arihant made 170-3 but Bagmati Chargers achieved the target for the loss of eight wickets in the last ball of 20 overs. Arihant owed the total to an unbeaten 32-ball 52 from Pankaj Prakash Pawan, 48 from Shailesh Sethia and 45 not out from Paras Lunia. Rahul Agrawal top scored with 35-ball 41 in a successful Bagmati Chargers run chase.