New Lira claim U-16 selection cricket tournament

KATHMANDU: Bijaya Rokaya completed a five-wicket haul to help New Lira beat Suryodaya School by a whopping 70 runs in the final of the U-16 Inter-school Kathmandu District Selection Tournament here at the Tribhuvan University Stadium today.

Electing to bat first, New Lira scored 102-9 in their allotted 20 overs and dismissed Suryodaya for a meagre 32 runs in 13.3 overs. New Lira lost their wickets in regular intervals despite a 17-ball 22 from opener Dilman Roka and were reeling at 59-6 by the 15th over. Middle order batsman Bijay Rokaya contributed a patient 28-ball 17 before tailenders Manoj Dhakal and Sanjay Sharma added quickfire 12 runs each to help their team reach the three-figure mark.

Both Manoj and Sanjay struck three fours apiece. Their total was also boosted by 34 sundries. Skipper Nupur Pandey, Nikesh Shrestha and Rishab Rajbhandari claimed two wickets each while Sachin Timalsina took one wicket for Suryodaya.

Defending 102 runs, New Lira new-ball bowlers Bijay and Suyash Aryal rattled through the Suryodaya innings sharing seven wickets between them. Suryodaya were out of contention after being reduced to 7-8 in 4.4 overs. Had it not been for the No 10 batsman Sushant Shrestha (nine) and No 11 Rishab Rajbhandari (five not out), Suryodaya were struggling to even reach the double figure mark. Man of the match Bijay returned with 5-8 and Suyash took 2-14 from four overs. Aakash Maharjan claimed one wicket while two batsmen were run out.

Suryodaya skipper Nupur was adjudged the man of the series as well as the best batsman while Suyash won the best bowler award.

LRI, BSAM win

KATHMANDU: Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidhyalaya (BSAM) and LRI reached the quarter-finals of the first Rum Pum Inter-school Cricket tournament here on Sunday.

In the first match at LAB School Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, BSAM registered a 38-run win over Nightingale School. Batting first after losing the toss, Birendra Sainik scored 131-8 in 20 overs and successfully defended the target bowling out Nightingale for 93 in 18.5 overs.

Roshan Khatri, Abhigya Shrestha and man of the match Sagun Duwadi took two wickets each for the winning side. Prashant Yadav (27) and Ranjit Shah (21) collected runs in double figures for Nightingale. Earlier, Ayush Jung Rana scored run-a-ball 22 and Amrit Adhikari remained unbeaten with run-a-ball 20 for BSAM. Anil Chaisir (11) and Saugat Basnet (10) also contributed valuable runs to their total. Mahendra Negi claimed three wickets for Nightingale.

In the other match, LRI made into the last eight with a six-wicket victory over Trijyoti School. LRI chased the 78-run target in 13.4 overs. Keyur Jha contributed 26 runs that included two sixes and a four while Sishir Pandey made 21 runs. Biplov Rimal took two wickets for Trijyoti.

Trijyoti were bowled out for a paltry 77 runs in 16.3 overs after man of the match Nischal Dhakal grabbed four wickets for LRI. Madhav Poudel made run-a-ball 12 and Bishal Poudel (10) was the only other batsman to score in double figure. In all 10 teams are participating in the tournament organised by the Kathmandu Cricket Training Centre.