KATHMANDU: Nepal Police Club has become the winner of the Kathmandu Mayor’s Cup Cricket held in Kathmandu. Nepal Police defeated APF by 8 wickets in the final to become the champions of the Mayors Cup.
The winning team Nepal Police received a trophy and as a cash prize of Rs 500,000. The runner-up APF was awarded Rs 300,000. The APF has been denied the title for the second time in a row. APF was defeated by Tribhuvan Army in the final of the Prime Minister’s Cup.
Nepal Police completed the target of 106 runs on 24 overs by losing 2 wickets. Sunil Dhamala contributed 59 runs in the victory of Nepal Police. He faced 82 balls and hit seven fours and two sixes in a restrained innings. Kaushal Bhurtel and Anil Sah contributed 15-15 runs each. Dipendra Singh Airee remained unbeaten on 11 runs.
Bhuvan Karki and Avinash Bohara took one wicket each for APF.
Earlier, winning the toss APF decided to bat first at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. The first three batsmen of APF returned to the pavilion with 10 runs in the scoreboard. APF could not return to batting after Nepal Police fast bowler Gulshan Jha destroyed the opening batting order.
Fast bowler Jha returned Shankar Rana, captain Sharad Veswakar and Bhuvan Karki to the pavilion. Another opener Asif Shesh fell victim to Sagar Dhakal. Asif and Sharad were knocked out. In the middle order, Basanta Regmi tried to lift APF’s innings but he returned to the pavilion after being trapped by Sagar Dhakal’s LBW for 22 runs.
Sandeep Jora scored 18 runs and was lbw out of Lalit Rajbanshi. Amar Singh Rautela contributed 18 runs. Sumit Maharjan was caught by Pawan Sarraf for a personal total of four runs.
Fast bowler Gulshan Jha took four wickets in seven overs. Sagar Dhakal took four wickets for 28 runs in seven overs. Pawan Sarraf and Lalit Rajbanshi shared one wicket each.