Kathmandu, June 22:

Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) won all the three matches at the Women’s Quadrangular Selection Cricket Tournament and topped the table with nine points here today.

Region No 6 (Baitadi) won two matches and finished second with six points, followed by Region No 4 (Bhairahawa), who earned three points. Region No 3 (Kathmandu) lost all the three matches.

On Friday, Nepalgunj defeated Bhairahawa by five wickets and Baitadi thrashed Kathmandu by eight wickets at the Lab School grounds. Put into bat first, Bhairahawa scored 55/8 in 20 overs and Nepalgunj overcame the target losing five wickets in 12.2 overs. Madhu Thapa top-scored for Bhairahawa with 12 runs while Shanti Basyal contributed six.

Sita Rana and Trishna Singh took two wickets each for Nepalgunj. In reply, Manisha Rawal scored an unbeaten 18 off 44 balls. Gita Khadka made six while Binu Budamagar and Trishna Singh contributed five runs apiece. Rawal was adjudged the woman of the match.

In the other match, Kathmandu made 38/8 in 20 overs and Baitadi chased the target losing two wickets in 14 overs. Swastika Poudel and Radhika Thapa scored six runs each, while Shradha Aryal made five. Manisha Khadka took 4-7 off four overs for Baitadi.

In reply, Bhanu Lekhak scored an unbeaten 12 off 19 balls hitting two fours for Baitadi. Maya Rawat made eight runs. Manisha Khadka was named the woman of the match.

Nitu Thapa of Bhairahawa was declared the woman of the series, while Sita Rana of Nepalgunj won the best bowler and Madhu Thapa of Bhairahawa bagged the best batswoman’s awards.

The organisers, Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) did not declare the champions saying it a selection tournament for the ACC Women’s Cricket Tournament to be held next month in Malaysia and gave away ‘encouragement’ awards to all the four teams. CAN President Binay Raj Pandey, vice president Upendra Bhattarai, member Binod Rajbhandari and tournament convenor LB Chhetri gave away the prizes.

According to the CAN, the players for the July 11-18 ACC tournament will be selected on Sunday. Nepal is drawn in Group A along with Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Bangladesh, China, Singapore and UAE are in Group B.

Nepal will play against Thailand on July 12, before playing against Malaysia (July 14) and Hong Kong (July 15). The matches will be held in two venues — Johor Cricket Academy and the Institute Perguruan Temenggong Ibrahim.

Nepal to get $72,000 from ACC

KATHMANDU: The 2007 AGM of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has decided to grant $1.5 million to the non-Test playing countries to allow them to fulfill their scheduled development programmes. After satisfying certain conditions, each country will receive a base amount of $42,000, with the seven full members — Nepal, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE — receiving an extra $30,000, said ACC in its website. Subsequent amounts are awarded on the basis of ACC tournament performance and the meeting of governance criteria, the ACC added.

Cricket Association of Nepal president Binay Raj Pandey said that Nepal had asked for more budget from the ACC. “As we are the U-19 champions and cricketing activities are increasing day by day in Nepal, we have asked for more than $100,000,” he said. “They just cannot generalise all the members,” he added. — HNS