Province 3 and Province 2 won their respective matches of the Prime Minister Cup One-Day national cricket tournament on Tuesday.

At the TU grounds, Province 3 made a solid comeback with the bat to edge Province 6 by three wickets. Province 2, meanwhile, defended a low total at the Mulpani Cricket Ground to beat Province No 4 by 67 runs.

Tournament minnows Province 6 were dismissed for 178 in 47.4 overs but medium pacer Chandra BC kept them in the match with a six-wicket haul. However, a 56-run stand for the eighth wicket between Rupesh Srivastav and Kishor Mahato helped Province 3 reach 182-8 in 36.3 overs.

Chandra first reduced Province 3 to 10-3 inside three overs before a 64-run fourth wicket stand between Aadil Khan and Sanjay Basnet (20) brought them back in contention. Chandra returned again and dismissed both the set batsmen and Tek Salami bowled Sonu Tamang reducing Province 3 to 84-6. Ishan Pandey (23) and Rupesh added 42 runs before Chandra got rid of the former.

However, Rupesh and Kishor avoided the shock defeat with sensible cricket. Rupesh top scored with a 63-ball 39 hitting six boundaries and Mahato scored a 28-ball 25 with three fours and a six. Aadil made 31 off 46 with four boundaries. Man-of-the-match Chandra returned with figures of 6-41 from 10 overs but was left dejected. “Its sad that despite taking six wickets alone it was not enough for us to win the game. We neither have any academy or play club cricket back home. So to play at this level, we have to do a lot of work,” said Chandra.   

Province 6 were reeling at 75-5 before Rabindra Jung Shahi and Diwan Pun pushed the team towards a respectable total with a 72-run stand. Skipper Rabindra made 52 off 79 with five hits to the fence. Diwan also scored 52 off 64 with three hits to the fence. Tek Salami contributed 26 from 38 with five boundaries. Kishor and skipper Jitendra Singh Thakuri took two wickets each for Province 3.

In Mulpani, spinners Sanjam Regmi and Samsad Sheikh shared nine wickets as Province 2 bundled out Province 4 for just 91 runs in 28.5 overs after making 158 in 44.3 overs. Former national team spinner Sanjam took 5-16 from 10 overs and Samsad claimed 4-20 from 7.5 overs. Samsad now has eight wickets from two matches.

Anil Gurung top scored for Province 4 making 36 off 69 balls with three boundaries and Suma Ghimire (32 off 36) was the only remaining batsman to reach double figures. Sanjam walked away with man-of-the-match honour. Earlier, Province 3 didn’t have big contributors with Bishal Shusling scoring a 69-ball 26. Rashid Khan (18), Rahul Pratap Singh (17) and Mehboob Alam (17) were their next best scorers. Bipin Khatri and Hari Chauhan took three wickets apiece for Province 4.

Summaries

Province Two 158 all out in 44.3 overs (B Shusling 26, R Khan 18; Bipin Khatri 3-17, H Chauhan 3-24) beat Province Four 91 all out in 28.5 overs (A Gurung 36, S Ghimire 32; S Regmi 5-16, S Sheikh 4-20) by 67 runs

Man-of-the-match: S Regmi

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Province Three 182-7 in 36.3 overs (R Srivastav 39, A Khan 31; C BC 6-41, T Salami 1-40) beat Province Six 178 all out in 47.5 overs (RJ Shahi 52, D Pun 52; K Mahato 2-35, JS Thakuri 2-24) by three wickets

Man-of-the-match: C BC