The inaugural edition of the Nepal T20 League underwent its Qualifier 1 match today with Lumbini All Stars and Janakpur Royals fighting for the first final spot of the league. With Lumbini All Stars defending the target of 144 runs against Janakpur Royals, the team has entered into the final of the inaugural league. Kishore Mahato was the man to pocket the game for Lumbini All Stars as he defended 10 runs in the last over of the game conceding only 3 to Janakpur Royals.
Janakpur Royals had won the toss and invited Lumbini All Stars to bat first in the game. The strongest team in the league, Lumbini All Stars, made 143/8 in 20 overs to set the target of 144 runs for Janakpur Royals. Ishan Pandey was the top run contributor for Lumbini All Stars in the game with 38 runs off 39 balls.
Ashan Priyanjan, Sompal Kami and Jitendra Mukhiya took two wickets each for Janakpur Royals with Trevon Griffith and Pawan Sarraf securing a wicket each for themselves. Janakpur Royals conceded 15 extras to Lumbini All Stars in the game that include 14 runs from wide.
Chasing the target of 144 runs in the second inning of the game, Janakpur Royals made 137/7 before their inning ended. Samiullah Shinwari was the top run contributor for the team in the game with 45 runs off 31 balls.
Dipendra Singh Airee, Bipul Sharma and Sagar Dhakal took two wickets each for Lumbini All Stars in the game with Shadley van Schalkwyk taking a wicket. Lumbini All Stars conceded 4 extras to Janakpur Royals in the game.
Bipul Sharma was the Player of the Match for his 20(13) in batting and 2/21 in bowling.
The Drama:
The game had entered into a super excited state in the last two overs of the game. At the end of 19 overs, Janakpur Royals was at 134/7 as they added 23 runs losing a wicket in the 19th over of their innings where Shadley van Schalkwyk went for 23 runs in his only over in the game that helped Janakpur Royals scale up from 111/6 in 18 overs to 134/7 in 19 overs. With 2 sixes from Samiullah Shinwari and a six with a four from Pawan Sarraf, Janakpur Royals had added 23 runs in the 19th over of the game where Sompal Kami joined Pawan Sarraf after the dismissal of Samiullah Shinwari.
Janakpur Royals needed 10 runs off the last over to win the game and enter the final of the league. But, with Kishore Mahato throwing excellent bowling in the over, Lumbini All Stars cheered the moment of entering into the final of the league. Mahato bowled to Sompal Kami in the first ball of the over where Sompal Kami ran for a single. Then, Pawan Sarraf who was batting at the strike rate of 200.00 with 28 runs off 14 balls in his name, had to face 3 consecutive dot balls from Kishore Mahato increasing the pressure on his team. In the fifth ball of the over, Pawan Sarraf could add a double for his team and faced a dot ball in the last ball of the game from Kishore Mahato. Kishore Mahato defended 10 runs for his team, as he conceded only 3 runs to Janakpur Royals, and became the man to save Lumbini All Stars in the game.
