KATHMANDU: Hosts Kantipur City College (KCC) ‘Blue’ defeated College of Information Technology and Engineering (CITE) by 43 runs and Triton College recorded a nailbiting seven-run win over National Campus in the Kist Bank Sixth KCC Running Trophy at the TU Stadium on Thursday.

Electing to bat first, KCC scored a modest 128-8 in 20 overs before dismissing CITE for 85 runs in 16.4 overs. Dhan Bahadur Chhetri top scored for KCC with 42 runs. Chhetri struck five fours and a six in his 33-ball knock. Opener Suraj Timalsina contributed 25-ball 28 and Yasin Hawari scored an unbeaten 19 from just nine balls. Vaskar Rana took 3-22 and Bishal Jaiswal bagged 2-10 for CITE. Three KCC batsmen were run out.

In reply, CITE were reeling at 12-5 by the fifth over and never recovered from the early damage. Ajay Rajbanshi, who hit 17-ball 26, and Vaskar, who made run-a-ball 14, gave some respectibility to their total. CITE’s total was also boosted by 25 sundries. Ashish Adhikari was the pick of the KCC bowlers with 4-24 while man of the match Suraj Timilsina took 3-23. Yasin also claimed 2-7 and Hasim 1-7.

In the other match, Triton made 112-7 and restricted National Campus for 105-7 in 20 overs. Rupesh Shrivastav’s late onslaught helped Triton pose a competitive total. Rupesh, batting at No 8, struck unbeaten 29 runs off 15 balls, hitting four boundaries and a six. Indra Kamal Dahal (22), Manjit Shrestha (15), Sagar Pun (12) and Puspa Thapa (11) also chipped in valuable runs. Sandip Shrestha and Bidhan Giri claimed two wickets each while Nirmal Simangaida, Ayush Sharma and Subendu Pandey took one wicket apiece for National Campus.

Although, National Campus lost opener Rupesh Sharma (naught) with just eight runs on the board, they failed to cash in on a 41-run second wicket stand between Bidhan Giri and Subendu Pandey. Bidhan scored 28 off 29 balls and Subendu made 20 off 25 balls. National Campus were nicely placed at 77-4 by the 16th over. They fell eight runs short despite needing 36 off the last 25 balls. Anupam Singh (22) and Nirmal Simangaida (15) were the other major contributors for National Campus. Man of the match Rupesh Shrivastav claimed two wickets, while Ritesh Singh and Sarad Vesawkar grabbed one wicket apiece for Triton.