National, Times advance to semis

Kathmandu, January 29:

National Campus and Times International College joined Capital College and Research Centre (CCRC) and Classic College in the semi-finals of the National Campus Twenty20 Inter-college Cricket Tournament here today.

National Campus advanced from Group ‘B’ with three wins in as many matches while Times qualified from Group ‘D’ also winning all three matches. Classic and CCRC have already made it to the last four from Group ‘A’ and ‘C’ respectively.

In a fight for a place in the semi-finals, National Campus beat Kantipur City College (KCC) by 53 runs at the Laboratory School grounds. Both the teams had six points going into the match. National Campus scored 157-5 in 20 overs and bowled out KCC for 104 runs in 19 overs.

Rupesh Sharma top scored with 54 from 42 deliveries for the National. Kushla Ghale also made 35 off 42 balls and Suvendu Pandey 16. Rajiv Budhathoki took two and Amit Alok bagged one wicket for KCC.

In reply, Raju Tandon scored highest 31 runs from 27 balls for KCC as Pranil Shrestha did most of the damage for National Campus. Man of the match Pranil took 4-22 from four overs while Kushal Ghale claimed two and Shahil Rana one wicket for National Campus.

In another match at the Lab grounds, Times College claimed the fourth semi-finals spot after their crucial 76-run win over Universal College. Put into bat first, Times accumulated 184-5 before dismissing Universal for 108 in 18.4 overs.

Rajan Khadgi scored a fluent 66 from 54 balls while Sujan Maharjan contributed unbeaten 29 and Chandan Shrestha 18 not out for Times. Sabindra Joshi and Ashish Karki claimed two wickets each and Santosh Adhikari took one for Universal.

In reply, Universal were packed up in the 19th over thanks to a five-wicket haul from Ashutosh Singh. Man of the match, Singh returned with 5-22 from four overs. Bijay Thapa also took two and Chandan Shrestha one wicket for Times.

In another match at TU Stadium, Hilbert beat Xavier International by six wickets and Himalayan White House College cruised to a nine-wicket victory over Budhanilkantha in the matches between the already eliminated teams.

Xavier made 74-8 in the 18-over match and Hilbert overcame the total losing four wickets in 9.4 overs. Akshya Shrestha, who took 3-16 from four overs for Hilbert, was declared man of the match.

In the next match at the TU Stadium, Budhanilkantha were cheaply dismissed for 63 runs in 16.4 overs and White House chased the total losing one wicket in just 5.4 overs. Sunam Gautam of White House, who scored unbeaten 39 of 23 balls, was adjudged man of the match.

CCRC will take on Classic and National Campus will play Times College in the semi-finals at the TU Stadium on Wednesday.