Sports
Oasis stun NPC to claim title
Oasis Cricket Academy stunned Nepal Police Club (NPC) by two wickets to claim the Rautahat Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament title on Tuesday.Oasis Cricket Academy stunned Nepal Police Club (NPC) by two wickets to claim the Rautahat Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament title on Tuesday.
After the Great Himalaya Cricket Academy (GHCA) withdrew from the semi-final alleging organisers of utter negligence, Oasis competed in the final where they bundled out NPC for just 88 runs in 19 overs. Oasis reached the target in 19.3 overs but in the process lost their eight wickets.
The title handed Oasis a cash purse of Rs 350,000 and runners-up NPC took home Rs 150,000. Hari Shankar Sah top scored for Oasis with 23 runs, while Rajesh Pulami chipped in 17 and Hashim Ansari made 14 runs. Sunil Dhamala took three wickets for NPC. Dipesh Shrestha also had two scalps. Shrestha bowled miserly conceding just five runs in four overs keeping two maiden.
NPC batsmen were not able to handle the pace from man-of-the-final Rashid Khan who took three wickets conceding just nine runs. Hari Bahadur Chauhan also took three wickets for Oasis. Yogendra Singh Karki top scored for NPC with 19 runs. Opener Dhamala and Prem Tamang made 15 each.
The final day of the tournament was marred by controversy after GHCA pulled out from semi-final. GHCA were to meet Oasis on Tuesday but they refused to play claiming their opponents were fielding two players out from their squad. “We had complained the organisers about the issue on Monday and after they agreed of not playing them, we decided to play,” said GHCA Director Sudeep Sharma. “The organisers had wanted to play a reduced match of which we disagreed and prepared to play them today (Tuesday). But they (organisers) wanted us to play the semi-final and final on the same day and we showed our strong resentment before pulling out,” added Sharma.