Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club advanced to the final of the NSC  National Women’s Twenty20 Championship with a nine-wicket win over  Mid-Western Region on Sunday.

Put into bat first at the Tribhuvan University Stadium, Mid-western scored  64-8 in 20 overs before APF surpassed the total for the  loss of one wicket in 11.2 overs. The second successive win in Group  ‘A’ meant, the departmental team will play for the title against the winners of the Group ‘B’ on Tuesday.

Opener Laxmi Chaudhary top scored for Mid-western with 22 runs, while  skipper Nary Thapa chipped in with 11 runs. Ritu Kanojiya was pick of the APF bowlers with 3-12. Sita Rana Magar and Karuna Bhandari also bagged two wickets each for the departmenal team.

In reply, openers Rana Magar and Jyoti Pandey put on a 44-run stand to ease the APF run chase. Player-of-the-match Rana Magar struck a fluent 26-ball 27 with five hits to the fence before being run out in the eighth over. Pandey remained unbeaten on 23.

In the Group ‘B’ match, Far-Western Region beat Western Region by eight wickets. The result meant, Far-western will now play against Eastern Region on Monday for a place in the final. With the second straight defeats, Western Region were eliminated from the tournament.

Batting first, Western Region made 91-3 in 20 overs but Far-western surpassed the total for the loss of two wickets in 19 overs. Western Region had a poor start, losing Prabina Khadka before even opening their account but Barsha Rana and skipper Indu Barma put on an 83-run second wicket stand to consolidate their innings. The duo’s hard work, however, went in vain. Barma struck 43 from 55 balls and Rana made 33 from 57 deliveries.

Far-western skipper Rekha Rawal scored 22 batting top of the order. More importantly Rawal stitched 36 runs for the second wicket with Roshani Bohara, who along with Kabita Joshi steered their team home with one over to spare. Player-of-the-match Bohara remained unbeaten on 36 and Joshi scored run-a-ball 25 unbeaten runs.

The tournament features six teams—five regional and APF Club— with the eventual champions walking away with Rs 100,000 cash prize.