Royal PC Fighter and Lord Buddha Cricket Club (LBCC) won their respective Group ‘B’ matches of the Khukuri Challenger Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Mulpani Cricket Ground on Monday.

LBCC registered their first victory of the tournament easing to a six-wicket victory over Trimurty Boys. Prakash Bista took first five-for of the tournament as PC Fighter earned their second consecutive win with a 66-run drubbing of IOE Pulchowk.

An unbeaten half century from returning national team opener Subash Khakurel guided PC Fighter to 163-8 in 20 overs. Man-of-the-match Bista ran riot in the middle order as Pulchowk were 97 all out in 19.3 overs. Pulchowk had a modest start after openers Pankaj Kumar Das (13) and Aman Nath Mandal (12) began with 32-run stand.

Once veteran allrounder Mehboob Alam removed both batsmen in a single over, Bista began to wreak havoc. He took five middle order wickets as Pulchowk hardly recovered in the game. Bista returned the figures of 5-12 from four overs, while Alam conceded just three runs in three overs. Gaurav Khadka top scored for them with 31 off 34 hitting two fours and a six.

PC Figther’s total revovled around Khakurel after they lost Rabin Joshi (19) with 30 runs on board. Khakurel shared 48 runs for the second wicket with opener Sandeep Sunar and stuck to the crease remaining unbeaten on 66 from 48 balls with seven boundaries and two sixes. Sunar chipped in 30 off 26, his innings including four fours and a maximum. Suyash Aryal, Chiranjibi Pandey, Manish Gyawali and Dinesh Thagunna took two wickets each for Pulchowk.

In the match between two bottom teams, Trimurty Boys reached 151-5 in 20 overs before a collective effort took LBCC to 155-4 in 18.2 overs. Manish Srivastav shaped the LBCC innings sharing 42 runs for the third wicket with Jyoti Bhandari and 49 runs for the fourth with Anup Shrestha.

Srivastav made 39 off 43 with three fours and man-of-the-match Bhandari contributed an all-important 36 from 26 balls with four boundaries and two sixes.

Earlier, Jiban Lamsal had steered Trimurty Boys across 150-run mark as the opener got involved in two big partnerships - 57 runs for the second wicket with Dipendra Magar and 50-run fourth wicket stand with Sanjay Tamang (28). Lamsal made 48 off 51 with three fours and Magar hit six boundaries in his 30-ball 36. Prasoon Thapa Magar took two wickets.