Nist and Shahid Smarak College advanced to the quarter-finals of University Cricket Cup twenty20 tournament with convincing wins at the TU grounds in Kirtipur on Wednesday.

Nist registered a thumping 110-run win over Patan Multiple Campus and Shahid Smarak overcame Patan Academy of Health Sciences by six wickets. Put into bat first, openers Bipin Acharya (52) and Sohan Yadav (51) struck half centuries as Nist posted a mammoth 182-5 total on board. The openers put on 120 runs for the first wicket to lay the foundation for the big total. Man-of-the-match Acharya hit seven fours in his 51-ball knock and Sohan slammed three bouncies in his 45-ball innings.

Bibek Rana Magar also stuck a quickfire 44 off 22. Nirmal Luitel, Dipendra Airee, Shyam Thapa Magar and Ramesh Joshi pocketed one wicket each. Nirmal Luitel (21) was the only batsman to contribute runs in double figures as Patan manged just 72 runs in 17.1 over. Pradip Pariyar claimed four and Sumit Jha three wickets for Nist.

In the day’s another match, Patan Academy were restricted to 116 runs in 18.1 overs before Shahid Smarak replied with 119-4 in 18.2 overs. Manish Yadav top scored for Patan Academy with 33 and Nripesh Raj Giri contributed 29. Man-of-the-match Dev Chalaune was pick of Shahid Smarak bowlers with three wickets. Shahid Smarak opener Nabin Sharma scored 34 runs to ease their run chase. Sharma struck three boundaries in his 48-ball knock. They lost some wickets but the result was never in doubt as Sagar Lamsal saw off his team home with an unbeaten 24-run contribution. Giri took two wickets while Ashok and Bivek Ghimire bagged one apiece for Patan.