Baluwatar Cricket Club and Kathmandu Cricket Training Centre (KCTC) on Thursday set the title showdown of the Khukuri Challenger Twenty20 cricket tournament. Baluwatar beat Shantinagar Youth Club by four wickets while KCTC defeated Royal PC Fighter by 41 runs in the semi-finals at the Tribhuvan University Ground to line up title clash for Saturday.

In the first semi-final match, Siddhant Lohani struck quickfire half century to help Shantinagar post a decent 147-4 in 20 overs. But Lohani’s run-blitz was overshadowed by Sonu Tamang’s winning knock as Baluwatar chased the target for the loss of six wickets in 19.2 overs. Lohani struck nine boundaries and three sixes in his unbeaten 36-ball knock. Opener Amit Shrestha (33) and skipper Manjeet Shrestha (24) earlier set the foundation Lohani to free his hands in the death overs. Amit struck six boundaries in his 31-ball innings while Manjeet hit one six and a four in his 28-ball knock. Amar Singh Rautela claimed two, while Siddhant Raj Shahi and Kshitiz Singh took one wicket each for Baluwatar.

Baluwatar went through the same pattern as their opponents as opening batsman Pranit Thapa Magar chipped in 18-ball 20 and skipper Prithu Baskota contributed 33-ball 39 to set the stage for man-of-the-match Sonu Tamang to play the match-winning knock. Baskota clobbered eight boundaries in his innings. Tamang then slammed four sixes and three fours in his 34-ball 56 unbeaten runs to steer Baluwatar to victory. Ram Naresh Giri, Sunil Dhamala, Ajay Rajbanshi, Manjeet, Mukund Yadav and Firdosh Ansari took one wicket each for Shantinagar.

In the day’s second semi-finals, KCTC rode on a half century from Sumit Maharjan to post 163-7 before restricting Royal PC for 122-9. No 3 batsman Maharjan, who remained unbeaten on 56 with five fours and a six, was key to KCTC to posting the daunting total. His patient knock allowed four other batsmen to chip in valuable runs. Sanjay Basnet scored 17-ball 25, Santosh Poudel made a whirlwind 22 in nine balls, Adhil Khan chipped in 15 and Sudhi Chaudhary made 13. Shamsher Chand and Prakash Bista claimed two wickets each for Royal PC.

Only two batsmen were able to score in double figures for Royal PC including a half century from No 3 batsman Sandeep Sunar. Sunar struck seven boundaries and two sixes in his 33-ball 53. Subash Khukurel was their next best contributor with 15. Man-of-the-match Sanjay Basnet returned with figures of 3-23, while Sumit Jha and Dil Khan bagged two wickets each for KCTC.