Rohit Kumar Paudel once again starred for Bhairahawa Gladiators as the U-19 cricketer smashed two consecutive sixes in the last over to put his team into the final of the Everest Premier League (EPL) Twenty20 on Thursday.

In one of the exciting contests at the TU Stadium, Gladiators defeated Lalitpur Patriots by three wickets in a last-over thriller to set the championship date with Paras Khadka-led Biratnagar Warriors for Saturday. Electing to field first, Patriots were restricted to 132-6 in 20 overs before Gladiators replied with 133-7 in 19.3 overs.

It was a dejavu for Patriots, who were also undone by Rohit’s brutal hitting when he smashed 11-ball 31 to win the game for Gladiators in the league stage collecting 18 runs from the penultimate over bowled by Mehboob Alam. Gladiators had needed 26 runs from the last 12 balls in that game and on Thursday they needed 13 from the last over.

Alam watched the last over from dugout and it was Patriots’ Indian recruit Dipesh Bhandari who was at the receiving end. Paudel hit the first two balls from Bhandari straight down the ground for consecutive sixes to leave Patriots stunned. An easy single in the third ball ignited a wild celebrations in the Gladiators’ camp. Paudel was confident of himself, saying: “I was planning to finish the game in the 19th over but Rashid bowled really well. I was in clear mind that I would hit the ball long way if it comes in my range,” said Paudel.

Gladiators had a slow start in the powerplays and lost opener Rahul Yadav (nine) with 25 runs on board from six overs. Another Indian opener Pratham Salunke smashed leg spinner Sandeep Lamichhane for three consecutive sixes in the seventh over to bring down the soaring asking run-rate.

Lamichhane had his revenge removing Salunke with a wrong’un in the last ball but the teen-aged bowler bled 14 runs in his next over. Lamichhane conceded 33 in two overs. Patriots, however, took control of the game with quick wickets of skipper Sharad Vesawkar (nine), Aarif Sheikh (six), Pradeep Airee (five) and Bhupendra Thapa (19) reducing Gladiators to 88-6 in 15.1 overs.

Paudel and Puneet Mehra (16) kept Gladiators in the game with a 27-run seventh wicket stand. Gladiators needed 18 runs from the last 12 balls but seamer Rashid Khan bowled an excellent penultimate over conceding just five runs to add to a wicket of Mehra. But Patriots ended up paying the price for Paudel’s drop catch in that over.

“I think the two overs from Sandy (Lamichhane) and the drop catch turned the game for us. The total was defendable but we could have put on 10 or 15 runs more had we scored a bit quicker. Its hard to leave the tournament without title after coming this far,” said Patriots skipper Gyanendra Malla.

His opposite number Vesawkar hailed the entertaining contest. “I think the match was very exciting. We lost few wickets in the middle overs and were under pressure. We have to play very well to defeat Warriors in the final. The good thing is that we have a good finisher in Rohit,” said Vesawkar.

Earlier, openers Jaykishan Kolsawala and Shankar Rana (12) put on fourth consecutive half century stand, adding 51 in nine overs before both fell in the space of nine runs. Kolsawala made 42 off 37 with five fours and two sixes. Malla (20) and Sunny Patel (24) took the team close to triple figures with 37-run stand but Patriots still didn’t manage enough runs on the board. Bhandari (22) upped the ante in the last over from Hari Shankar Sah smashing 20 runs to put a challenging total.

Summary

Bhairahawa Gladiators 133-7 in 19.3 overs (P Salunke 32, RK Paudel 28 not out; LN Rajbanshi 2-9, P Sarraf 2-25) beat Lalitpur Patriots 132-6 in 20 overs (J Kolsawala 42, S Patel 24; P Mishra 2-28, B Karki 1-19) by three wickets

Man-of-the-match: RK Paudel