Kathmandu, November 9:

Amit Shrestha’s scintillating batting steered Region No 2 (Birgunj) to a four-wicket victory over Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) while Pradeep Airee’s allround performance saw Region No 6 (Baitadi) defeat Region No 3 (Kathmandu) by 20 runs in the Boost U-17 National Cricket Tournament today.

Put into bat first at the Engineering grounds, Bhairahawa scored 183-9 in 40 overs but Birgunj surpassed the total in 38.1 overs thanks to an unbeatedn 89 from opener Amit Shrestha.

Bhairahawa had a terrible start when they lost opener Nischal Chaudhary without opening their account but Suraj Harijan and Sagar Pun consolidated the innings putting on 82 runs for the second wicket. Pun top-scored with 66 off 84 balls that included eight fours and a six while Harijan contributed 66-ball 36. Milan Rana also chipped in 32 off 36 balls. Sameer Nepal

and Hari Shankar Shah claimed two wickets each while Avinash Karn, Bibek Dali and Mukesh Jha took one wicket apiece for Birgunj.

In reply, Birgunj too had a shaky start losing opener Rabin Gurung (one) in the seventh ball of the innings. But man of the match, Amit Shrestha and Hari Shankar Shah shared a 83-run partnership for the second wicket. Amit inflicted the major damage hitting eight fours and five sixes in his 84-ball knock. Shah contributed 29 while Sameer Nepal made 19. Krishna Sen was the pick of the Bhairahawa bowlers with 3-35 off four overs. Hemanta Acharya, Sagar Pun and Nischal Chaudhary also bagged one wicket each for Bhairahawa.

At TU Stadium, Baitadi were all out for 177 with two balls to spare but defended the total by dismissing Kathmandu for 157 in 39.1 overs. Bhuwan Karki scored the highest 31 runs while Bikram Sob (30), Pradeep Airee (23), Gokul Joshi (22) and Prashant Bista (14) all contributed valuable runs for Baitadi. Ayush Sharma, Prithu Baskota and Rochak Bhatta took two wickets apiece for Kathmandu.

In reply, Kathmandu were shut out for 157 in 39.1 overs with the major contribution coming from the middle order batsman Prajesh Bahadur Singh, who scored 54-ball 34. Kathmandu skipper Prithu and Rochak Bhatta also chipped in 22 runs each. Pradeep Ayree and Sunil Tamang claimed three wickets each while Bhuwan Karki took two. Bashu Giri and Bikram Sob also picked up one wicket apiece.

Under-17 gets Boost

KATHMANDU: Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) signed Boost as the fifth sponsor here on Sunday. Boost will sponsor the ongoing Under-17 National Cricket Tournament. Mohan Man Rajbhandari of Buddhiman Gajendraman Pvt Ltd, the local marketing agency of Boost — Produced by Glaxo and Smithkline Pharmaceuticals Company of India — of behalf of the sponsors and CAN President Binay Raj Pandey signed the Memorandum of Understanding. The sponsors will provide CAN Rs 500,000 for the tournament which ends on November 15.

“This is just the beginning. We are planning to make it a long-term relationship,” said Pandey. “The relationship with Boost is important for us as they have assured of putting in young cricketers in the camp at their Boost Cricket Academy in India,” he added.

Meanwhile, Pandey also informed that the Bangladesh Under-17 team was visiting Nepal for three one-day and one two-day matches. “We will prepare two teams from the players selected for the ACC U-17 Elite Cup and they will play matches with the Bangladeshi team, which will arrive here on November 21,” he said. — HNS