Sports
Shantinagar, KCTC in semi-finals
Shantinagar Youth Club and Kathmandu Cricket Training Centre (KCTC) advanced to the semi-finals of the Khukuri Challenger Twenty20 cricket tournament on Tuesday.Shantinagar Youth Club and Kathmandu Cricket Training Centre (KCTC) advanced to the semi-finals of the Khukuri Challenger Twenty20 cricket tournament on Tuesday.
In the quarter-final matches held at the Mulpani Cricket Ground, Shantinagar beat Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) by seven runs and KCTC defeated Great Himalaya Cricket Academy (GHCA) by 24 runs.
In the first match, Shantinagar were indebted to a half century from Sunil Dhamala and a four-wicket haul from man-of-the-match Yogendra Singh Karki to floor the Army team. Dhamala struck run-a-ball 51 to help Shantinagar post 128-8. Amit Shrestha’s 22-ball 23 also turned out to be decisive at the end for Shantinagar, who restricted TAC for 121-8 thanks largely to Karki. Avinash Bohara claimed four and Hari Jha took two wickets for TAC.
Six Army players failed to turn good starts into winning knock and fell agonising close to the winning target. Lokendra Chand top scored for TAC with 17-ball 20. Karki took 4-18 and Manjeet Shrestha 3-15.
In the second match, KCTC posted 123-7 and bowled out GHCA for 99 in 18.4 overs. Man-of-the-match Sudhir Chaudhary scored 64, his 60-ball knock included seven boundaries and two sixes. Durgesh Thapa also scored a fluent 37-ball 35 with one six and a four. Ishan Pandey was pick of the GHCA bowlers with 3-20.
Pradeep Airee (23) and Abhishek Basnet (17) gave GHCA a desired start to their run chase putting on 31 runs for the opening wicket. But their dismissal triggered a collapse which eventually saw the team dismissed for 99 runs.