Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) and Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club set a mouthwatering departmental clash of the Deepak Gupta Memorial Twenty20 cricket tournament on Friday.

In the semi-finals, TAC hammered Phoenix Cricket Club of Assam by nine wickets after APF brushed aside another Indian side Sonnet Cricket Club of Kanpur by 28 runs in the first game. The two sides will meet in the final on Saturday.

TAC rode on a collective bowling effort to bundle out Phoenix for just 52 runs in 16.2 overs. Openers Sagar Pun and Naresh Budhayer did the rest with a 40-run stand guiding their team to 53-1 in just 5.5 overs. Budhayer made 26 off 13 hitting five fours and a six, while Pun struck an 18-ball 22 with three fours and a six.

Sompal Kami had given TAC an early breakthrough removing opener Mujibur Ali and Bharat Newar in his first two overs as Phoenix lost their wickets in quick succession. Man-of-the-match Kami took 2-1 from two overs. Pun and Sahab Alam also had two scalps apiece. Another opener Rajinder Lal was the lone fighter making 21 off 29 hitting four boundaries.

Earlier in the day, NPC built on a good start provided by opener Sunil Dhamala and Ameet Shrestha to reach 147-5. Man-of-the-match Dhamala then returned to take two wickets along with Ramnaresh Giri and Lalit Rajbanshi to skittle out Sonnet for just 119 runs in 19.4 overs.

The only threat for NPC in their defence was the 40-run opening wicket stand between Aadesh Kumar and Pankul Kumar (17). Dhamala removed both the set batsmen to peg back Sonnet. Faiz Ahmed (17) and Sudhanshu Tribedi (16) were other notable scorers for Sonnet. Aadesh top scored with a 17-ball 25 with two sixes and as many boundaries.

Dhamala and Shrestha laid the foundation for NPC with a 71-run partnership for the first wicket. Dhamala made a run-a-ball 37 with three fours and two sixes as Shrestha scored 22 from 18 with two boundaries and one hit over the fence. Dilip Nath contributed 32 off 30 with two fours, while Aarif Sheikh played a 13-ball cameo of 27 with two fours and as many sixes. Ahmed took two wickets for Sonnet.