Bhari bowls TAC into semis

Sunsari, January 7

Sushan Bhari took a hattrick on his way to claiming seven wickets as Tribhuvan Army Club advanced to the semi-finals of the Manmohan Memorial National One-Day Cricket Tournament here at the Inaruwa grounds today.

TAC thrashed hosts MMCC Inaruwa by 10 wickets and accumulated four points from two matches to make it to the last four as Group A winners. Nepal APF Club (two) and MMCC Inaruwa (zero) crashed out of the group stage. TAC had defeated APF by 108 runs in the first match of the group, while APF beat MMCC by 86 runs in another match.

Batting first, MMCC Inaruwa were bowled out for a paltry 56 runs in 19.3 overs after Bhari ran riot, while TAC raced to 57-0 in just five overs to register their second straight victory. Man-of-the match Bhari stole the limelight with first six wickets including a hat-trick and then finished things up with the last wicket.

After removing Ravi Roy (two) and Bibek Meheta (naught) in the third and fourth balls of the sixth over, Bhari claimed four wickets

in the eighth over. Bhari had Sushant Timilsina caught by Kushal Malla before he took a return catch to dismiss Alfaz Mansuri in the next ball and trapped skipper Saroj Basnet leg before the wicket to make it three in a row in the second, third and fourth balls of the over. Two balls later, Bhari bowled Rakesh Sony for his fourth wicket of the over.

Hari Bahadur Chauhan bowled Rupesh Shrivastav in the 11th over and had Sonu Mandal caught by Hari Krishna Jha in the 13th over, while Shahab Alam dismissed Rewati Yadav to reduce the MMCC to 55-9.

Bhari then removed last man BhupalLuitel (naught) to return with the figures of 7-16 from 8.3 overs. Chauhan grabbed 2-28, while Alam did not concede runs in his two-over spell on his way to claiming a wicket.

In reply, TAC openers Kushal Malla and Hari Krishna Jha took the team home without loss. Malla struck five boundaries and two sixes in his unbeaten 19-ball 35, while Jha scored 20 not out off 11 balls that included two fours and a six.