Regmi stars in Bhairahawa win

Kathmandu, June 16:

Region No 4 (Bhairahawa) and Region No 3 (Kathmandu) qualified for the Shikhar Senior One-day National Cricket Tournament semi-finals after Bhairahawa handed Region No 6 (Baitadi) their second defeat today. Baitadi lost to Kathmandu on Thursday.

On Saturday at the TU Stadium, Bhairahawa registered a comfortable 158-run win over Baitadi. Put into bat first, Bhairahawa scored 220-8 in 50 overs. Bhairahawa consolidated their innings with a 65-run stand for the second wicket between Dipesh Khatri (23) and skipper Shakti Gauchan (30) after losing opener Depen Lamgaday (3) in the second over.

Amit Shrestha remained unbeaten on 47 off 58 balls including two fours and a six while Sagar Khadka (28), Antim Thapa (21) and Basanta Regmi (16) chipped in valuable runs to Bhairahawa total.

Rajendra Bahadur Chand took 3-45 in 10 overs while Manoj Shahi claimed 2-25 for Baitadi. Rajendra Chand, Chandra Saud and Kamal Raj Joshi bagged one wicket each.

In reply, Baitadi were all out for 62 runs in 35.4 overs. Prem Chaudhary top-scored with 17 runs.

The only other batsman to score in double figures was Manoj Joshi (15). Man of the match Basanta Regmi ran through the middle-order with his disciplined bowling after Amrit Bhattarai (2-12), Dipesh Khatri (1-21), Vijay Thapa (1-8) and skipper Shakti Gauchan (1-15) dismissed the top-order. Regmi bagged four wickets conceding just four runs in 7.4 overs.

Monday’s match between Kathmandu and Bhairahawa, who have three points each, will decide the Group B winners.

Region No 1 (Biratnagar) will play against Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) in a Group A match on Sunday. Nepalgunj and Region No 2 (Birgunj) both have one point each after their match was washed out on Friday.