Bhairahawa take on Kathmandu in final today

Kathmandu, November 6:

Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) will look to defend their title when they take on region No 3 (Kathmandu) in the final of the Pepsi Under-15 National Cricket Tournament here at the Tribhuvan University Stadium on Wednesday.

Captained by Sagar Pun, who was the member of Nepal’s ACC Under-15 Elite Cup winning team, Bhairahawa entered the final with a four-wicket win over Region No 1 (Biratnagar) on Sunday with Rishikesh Sharma taking five wickets and Rakesh Barai snatching three in the low scoring match. They had beaten Birgunj and Nepalgunj in the league round.

Bhairahawa coach Jagat Tamata said the game plan would depend on the toss. “We have made a certain strategy and we will follow that accordingly,” he said claiming his team was a balanced one with good bowlers as well as the batsmen. “We are strong in both the batting and bowling and we have quality spinners to add to that,” he said. “We will have to check the Kathmandu opening bowlers Ritesh Singh and Nasim Akhtar to defend our title,” added the former Nepali international player.

Beaten by Biratnagar in the first match, Kathmandu — under the captaincy of Nasim Akhtar — struggled to a two-run win over Region No 6 (Baitadi) in the league-round match to make it to the semi-finals. Kathmandu, however, registered a four-wicket victory over Region No 2 (Birgunj) in the semi-finals, thanks to Bijay Gautam and Akhtar who took four wickets apiece. Kathmandu will have the services of Rochak Bhatta and Prajesh Bahadur Singh, who were both in the Nepal’s team that won the ACC U-15 Elite Cup in Malaysia last year.

Kathmandu coach Rikesh Lama said the match would be a tough one. “As both the teams have good players, the team performing little better on the given condition will win the match,” he said. Lama said he would rely on the bowling rather that batting. “I have two good bowlers — Nasim Akhtar and Ritesh Singh, who would be key for tomorrow’s match,” he added.