Sharad Vesawkar’s Bhairahawa Gladiators will be clear underdogs when they take on Paras Khadka-led Biratnagar Warriors in the final of the Everest Premier League (EPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament at the TU Stadium on Saturday.

The battle is expected to be intense for the title that will fetch the champions Nepali cricket’s highest-cash prize of Rs 2.1 million. But given the way  the tournament unfolded for Gladiators, Khadka’s Warriors will head into the final as the clear favourites. 

Warriors met Gladiators twice prior to the final and on both the occasions they had been clinical. In the league stage, Warriors swept aside Gladiators by 35 runs and the two sides met once again in the first Qualifier with Vesawkar’s team going down by a huge margin of eight wickets. But Khadka doesn’t want the final outcome to be judged by the past results. 

“If we take a look at the results in the previous games, we could appear as favourites. But tomorrow is a completely new day. Past result doesn’t suggest that people will get to see the same outcome,” said Khadka adding his side would like to enjoy the final. 

“It might sound a bit odd for everyone but we just want go out there in the final and enjoy our game. EPL has been a great tournament and as a player we couldn’t have asked for more than to be in the final. We are lucky that we are going to play the final of this event and besides thinking anything else, we will just express ourselves tomorrow,” added the national cricket team skipper.

Vesawkar agreed with Khadka saying: “We lost twice against them but tomorrow will be a new day. We just need to play our best cricket and find ways to stop their top order batsmen,” he said. 

Barring Aasif Sheikh, Warriors’ top order has been in prime form with the trio of Babar Hayat, Anshuman Rath and Khadka accounting for 680 out of 866 runs they have scored so far in six matches. The Hong Kong duo of Hayat and Rath has been way too impressive, managing to play the role of aggressor and anchor. Hayat has so far scored three half centuries in the tournament and is the leading run scorer with 

302 runs.

Rath, who has two half centuries, follows his Hong Kong captain in the second spot with 230 runs. In the presence of Hayat and Rath, Khadka had to hardly sweat with the bat making 148 runs. But Khadka believes his team is more than the in-form trio. “Anshuman and Babar have scored good chunk of our runs but the bowling side has been dominated by our Nepali bowlers,” said Khadka. 

“Even if somebody doesn’t do well, we have enough resources to make a comeback. All of our players have belief in themselves. If we fail, they should and will stand up because this is the best opportunity for them to showcase their talent. There are players who have played at Asia Cup and ACC Trophy and we can count on them,” added the Warriors captain. 

With their top order failing, Gladiators will once again pin their hopes on Vesawkar, middle order batsman Aarif Sheikh, Indian recruit Puneet Mehra and newly-discovered match finisher Rohit Kumar Paudel.