Nepal Police Club (NPC) beat Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) by 34 runs in the  final to lift the Deepak Gupta Memorial Twenty20 cricket tournament on  Saturday.Put into bat first NPC were bowled out for 114 in 18.2 overs in what  looked like a below par total. But a disciplined bowling effort led by  man-of-the-match Dipendra Singh Airee remarkably bowled out TAC for 80  runs in 18.2 overs.

In a clash of the two best teams of the tournament, skipper Manjeet  Shrestha top scored for NPC with a fluent 27 off 28 balls including three  sixes. Airee and Kushal Bhurtel also chipped in 19 runs each while Lalit  Singh Bhandari contributed 18 and Siddhant Lohani made 12. National team  pace spearhead Sompal Kami, Sagar Pun, Bikram Sob and Sahab Alam took two  wickets each for TAC.

Rajesh Pulami scored run-a-ball 31 and opener Pun made a battling 14, the  only two Army batsmen to contribute in double figures.

The likes of  established names Naresh Budhayer (1), Raju Rijal (0), skipper Binod  Bhandari (8) and big-hitter Kami (1) all failed with the bat. Airee  returned with figures of 3-7 from four overs. Sunil Dhamala, Lalit  Narayan Rajbanshi and Ram Naresh Giri also snared two wickets each for  NPC.

NPC received Rs 311,000 while TAC earned Rs 171,000. Army’s Pun was  declared the man-of-the-series for his 116 runs and eight wickets. Pun  was rewarded with Rs 31,000.

Aarif Seikh of NPC won the best batsman  award and earned Rs 21,000.

Sahab Alam was named the best bowler and  received Rs 21,000.