Rising Cricket Women (RCW) of Kathmandu and Milan Cricket Club of Jhapa entered the semi-finals of the Attariya Cup Women’s Twenty20 cricket tournament on Saturday.

Bangladeshi cricketers Shahanaz Parveen and Shampa Mukherjee slammed aggressive half centuries as RCW crushed Bara Cricket Club by 130 runs to go through as Group ‘B’ winners. Milan, led by national women’s team skipper Rubina Chhetri, saw off Kanchanpur by 27 runs in their last Group ‘A’ match to follow pool winners Nepal APF Club in the last four.

The day belonged to Parveen who missed out a century by just two runs remaining not out for 98 as she helped RCW amass a mammoth 203-3 in 20 overs. Bara, in reply, were restricted to 73-9 after Shanti Khatiwada picked up 3-9 from four overs. Player-of-the-match Parveen’s whirlwind 61-ball knock included 16 boundaries. 

Parveen shared 37 runs for the second wicket with Barsha Rana Magar before getting involved in a 103-run stand with Mukherjee who was out for a 29-ball 48 hitting seven fours and a six. 

Parveen then added another 59 runs for the fourth wicket with former Nepal skipper Nary Thapa Magar as RCW piled up a winning total. Thapa Magar made 28 off 12 balls with five hits to the fence. Rabina Bisunkhe and Saman Pun took a wicket each for the losing side. 

With a mountain to climb, Bara never looked comfortable in their chase losing wickets at regular intervals. Opener Geeta Gosai was the lone fighter for them making 37 runs from 59 balls with four boundaries. Bara’s next best score was 16 which came from extras. Apart from Khatiwada, Ashmina Karmacharya, Thapa Magar and Nimavat also picked up a wicket each. 

Milan needed a victory to reach semi-finals and a gritty 47 not out from Vaincy Chaudhary guided them to 146-6 in 20 overs. Kanchanpur, knocked out after the defeat, could only muster 119-6 with Kabita Joshi’s half century going in vain. 

Joshi gave Kanchanpur a 38-run stand for the first wicket with Rekha Rawal (11) but the middle order failed to cash in on the start. Dismissed in the 19th over as the last Kanchanpur wicket, Joshi made 52 from 57 balls with eight hits to the fence. Bindu Rawal (11 not out) was their next best scorer. 

Earlier, Milan didn’t have the best of the start losing their first four wickets for just 39 runs inside seven overs. Chaudhary then added a match-winning 53 runs for the fifth wicket with Ritu Jain that helped them get into a strong total. 

Jain made 28 from 31 balls with four boundaries, while Chaudhary hit seven fours in her 33-ball 47 not out. Muskan Begam chipped in a 21-ball 18 with three fours. Dolly Bhatt picked up three wickets for Kanchanpur and Manju Bist also had two scalps. Jain, who also took a wicket, was adjudged player-of-the-match.