Province 3 and Province 7 set the U-16 Cricket League title clash after winning their semi-final matches at the Tribhuvan University Stadium in Kirtipur on Sunday.

Province 3 beat Province 2 by 15 runs and Province 7 dispatched Province 5 by six wickets. In the first semi-final match of the day, Province 3 posted 154 in 29 overs thanks to a fluent half century from opener Aaish Bhattarai. In reply, Province 2 could only manage 139 in 28.5 overs.

Opener Bhattarai scored almost half the team’s total before eventually falling prey to Sheikh Imran, who had the opener caught by Rohit Chhetri in the 20th over. Before his dismissal at 113-3 in 19.1 over, Bhattarai put on 47-run stand for the first wicket with Deepak Bohara (10) and another 56 runs with Prashant Kamat (14). Man-of-the-match Bhattarai clobbered eight boundaries and two sixes in his 66-ball 77.

Among the other notable contributors for Province 3 were Krish Karki, who scored 16 off 10 balls, and Ashok Paudel, who scored 15-ball 12. Nikhil Kumar Singh was pick of the Province 2 bowlers with figures of 3-18, while Bishal Patel and Sheikh Imran claimed two wickets each.

In the chase of 155 runs, six of the Province 2 batsmen made good starts but none were able to convert those into big scores as they fell just short of the target. Parsuram Yadav top scored with a fluent 31 off 30 balls, while Prashant Singh played a 10-ball cameo which yielded 22 runs. Rohan BK (20), Bishal Patel (15), Nikhil Kumar Singh (13) and Birendra Sahani (13) were also unable to capitalise on their good starts. Sakriya Karki took three, while Deepak Bohara and Tilak Bhandari claimed two wickets each for Province 3.

In the second semi-final,  Province 7 were bowled out for a lowly 77 in 18.5 overs before Province 5 overcame the total for the loss of four wickets in 19.2 overs. Rahul Bhandari top scored with 21-ball 19 in a hapless Province 7 batting performance. Suwash Ayer also contributed 18 while Bijay Bhatta and Amrit Rawat chipped in 10 runs each. Man-of-the-match Bishal Bikram KC and Ramesh Kurmi claimed three wickets apiece while Suraj Khadka took two wickets for Province 5.

Province 5 lost Diwash Senchuri (0) early on but his opening partner Sushant Thapa steadied the ship in a chase of low target scoring 22 off 35 balls. In between Amar Mishra (11) and Prakash Giri (10) also chipped in notable runs before man-of-the-match KC completed the chase scoring an unbeaten 21 off 24 deliveries. Suwash Ayer bagged three wickets and Bibek KC snared one for Province 7.