Prafulla steers Yeti Airlines to victory

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Prafulla Vaidya and Ravi Sharma struck explosive half centuries to steer Yeti Airlines to a convincing six-wicket win over Private Public Partner (PPP), while You We Rangers beat Global Bank by eight wickets during the first Wai Wai Corporate Premier League Twenty20 Cricket Tournament here a the Tribhuvan University Stadium today.

Put into bat first by Yeti Airlines, PPP scored a decent 160-4 in 20 overs. But fiery knocks from Prafulla and Ravi made the 161-run target appear too little as Yeti Airlines got home in 14.3 overs for the loss of four wickets.

Amardeep Mahato top scored for PPP with 38-ball 50 after openers Mandip Regmi (38) and Sumit Shrestha (29) had laid the foundation for a big total. Amardeep struck three sixes and a four in his fiery knock, while Mandip hit five fours and two sixes in his 31-ball stay in the crease. Divas Prajapati, Ravi Sharma and Prafulla claimed one wicket each for Yeti Airlines.

Yeti Airlines had a poor start to the run chase, losing opener Narendra KC (four) in the fifth ball of their innings. However, the early dismissal of the opener hardly deterred Prafulla (71) and Ravi (50) from playing big shots. The duo put on a massive 98-run stand for the second wicket to put Yeti Airlines on the brink of victory. Man-of-the-match Prafulla returned unbeaten after striking 12 boundaries in his whirlwind 43-ball knock while Ravi struck seven fours and a six in his 30-ball innings. Gagan Ghimire took two wickets while Mandip and Sumit Shrestha snared one apiece for PPP.

In the second match of the day, Global Bank could only muster 123-4 in 20 overs after electing to bat first. In reply, You We overcame the total for the loss of two wickets in just 12.5 overs.

Skipper Ranjan Thapa top scored for Global Bank with unbeaten 43-ball 41while Niroj Pandey was the next best contributor with 25-ball 23. Chiraj Mahipal was the pick of the You We bowlers with three wickets.

After helping restrict Global to a low total, Chirag returned to score an explosive half century (64) to pave way for his side’s emphatic victory. Chirag and fellow opener Abhishek Agrawal (34) virtually took the game away from Global with a stand of 104 runs in just 9.4 overs. Chirag hit nine fours and two sixes in his 34-ball stay in the pitch while Abhishek struck three boundaries and a six in his fluent 31-ball knock. Ranjan and Niroj grabbed one wicket each for Global.