New Horizon Cricket Club of Butwal and Nepal Police Club (NPC) entered the semi-finals of the first Ruslan Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament on Thursday.

New Horizon beat Ruslan KCTC by six wickets after NPC hammered Makwanpur Cricket Club (MCC) of Hetauda by 10 wickets. In the semi-finals on Friday, New Horizon will take on Tribhuvan Army Club and NPC play Nepal APF Club.

In the first match of the day, NPC restricted MCC to 112 all out in 19.5 overs before their U-19 openers Sunil Dhamala and Shankar Rana smashed unbeaten half centuries to guide the team to 116 without loss in 15 overs.

Dhamala top scored in the match with a 49-ball 55, hitting five fours and two sixes. Rana, who was adjudged the man-of-the-match, hit 42-ball 51 with six fours and a six.

MCC were going nicely when Sahil Kansakar and Rabin Gurung (22) forged a 40-run stand at 60-1. But once Prem Tamang dismissed Gurung, MCC innings started to crumble. Sahil made a 33-ball 26 with two fours and a six, while Suman Sunar (19) was their next best scorer.

Lalit Bhandari picked up three wickets, while Manjeet Shrestha and Tamang had two scalps apiece.

Later in the day, New Horizon bundled out KCTC for a paltry 96 in 19 overs and chased down the target in 16.4 overs managing 100-4. New Horizon lost opener Nurdhoj Sen (one) but some modest contributions from rest of the batsmen sailed them through.

Nirmal Thapa top scored for New Horizon with a 36-ball 31 that included three boundaries. Prakash KC was unbeaten on 23 from 11 balls with five fours. Robin Chhetri took 2-6 from four overs for KCTC.

KCTC didn’t have big

scorers in the match with New Horizon bowlers gifting them 27 extra runs. Susan Bhari picked up 4-8 from four overs and Devendra Somare had 3-23 from four. Adil Khan (18) and Sanjay Basnet (17) were two notable contributors for KCTC.