Canon Cricket Club and hosts Ruslan KCTC won their respective matches of the first Ruslan Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament here at the Tribhuvan University Stadium grounds on Saturday. 

Canon edged G-Force Cricket Academy by eight runs in defense of a low 113-8 restricting G-Force to 105-5 in 20 overs. G-Force’s top three batsmen Obish Shahi (24), Saroj Paudel (23) and Susan Karki (29) all put decent contributions but on their way conceded too many deliveries. 

Karki was the quickest of them all hitting three boundaries in his 25-ball knock. Shahi and Poudel gave G-Force a 63-run stand but took 87 balls in their collective 47. Shahi had no boundary in 46 balls, while Poudel hit two sixes and a four in his 39-ball innings. 

Earlier, Suman Thakur and Pappu Kumar Das were the only Canon batsmen to put some runs on the board. Thakur hit 27-ball 30 with three fours and two sixes with Das’ 48-ball 27 including four hits to the fence. Satish Singh (15) was the only remaining batsman to make runs in double figures. Man-of-the-match Poudel took 5-18 from four overs for Canon.

In a one-sided second game, KCTC routed Great Himalayan Cricket Academy (GHCA) by 10 wickets after bundling out the opponents for a paltry 81 in 18.4 overs. Openers Manish Sahani and Aschal Chaudhary did the rest notching up an unbroken 84-run stand as KCTC cantered to victory in just 16.1 overs.

Sahani top scored with a 55-ball 45 and Chaudhary chipped in 42-ball 32. Both batsmen hit five boundaries  apiece. Prakash Bista (25) was the only GHCA batsman to stage some resistance. 

Man-of-the-match Dilip Yadav (3-15) and Robin Chhetri (3-12) shared six wickets between them for KCTC.