Kathmandu, July 4

Nepal Storm defeated Sri Lankan Lions by 27 runs and claimed the title of the Asian Club Premier League here at the Tribhuvan University Stadium today.

In the final match which was reduced to 10-over-a-side due to rain and wet outfield, Storm posted 108-7 after put into bat first and restricted Lions to 81-7. Storm scored the fighting total riding on Pawan Chandel’s 19-ball 42 and Jitendra Sharma’s 10-ball 23.

Utsav Chandra (2-13), Harshana (2-16) and Lovi Brara (2-24) shared six wickets among them for Lions, who fielded three players in different set of jersey. Sources claim some Lions players checked out the hotel without informing the organisers and they were forced to use unregistered players for the match. The organisers declined to comment on the matter.

In reply, Lions failed to achieve the target and were fell 28 runs short of the victory target. Harshana top scored for Lions with 26 off 20 and Sanjay Khichad remained unbeaten on 16-ball 23. Malwinder Singh (2-7), Gaurav Barabade (2-10) and Ashish Bisht (2-18) earned the victory for Storm.

Champions Nepal Storm earned INR 1.5 million, while runners-up Lions got INR one million. The organisers had announced a prize of INR 2.5m to the winners out of the total purse of INR four million, but they reduced the prize money to INR 3.5m and handed over a cheque of INR 1.5 million to the winning team.

Storm’s Pawan Chandel, who was named the man-of-the-match, was adjudged the best player of the tournament winning INR 15,000 and INR 25,000 for the two awards respectively. The organisers had announced a car for the player-of-the-series but they ended up giving away just INR 25,000.

Storm’s Ashish Bisht was declared the best bowler, while Dubai Warriors’ Dawood Ejaz was named the best batsman. They earned INR 15,000 each. Minister for Labour and Employment Farmullah Mansoor and Lawmaker Rajeev Bikram Shah among others handed over the prizes.