Cricket Events

A bitterly bruised and battered Myagdi is in soul searching after losing to Mirchi Lumbini in a crucial second semi-final match. Myagdi United failed to copy their pre-match form and dud out only for 57 runs handing an easy win for Lumbini. Myagdi’s loss sunk them so deep that their renascence as a Trophy Holder is unheard of. Myagdi opted to bat first despite Manish Shrestha’s absence. Manish has been a proven match winner batsman for many innings Myagdi has played. Captain Pradeep Panta gambled with Dipendra Thapa at the top of the order. Pawan Chhetri started superbly, however Dipendra Thapa fell to an ill judged double run. It was an astronomical loss to Myagdi as Dipendra is a formidable batsman for late overs. Captain Pradeep Panta soon realised his tactical error and brought himself to the crease. For next few overs Pawan diminish Lumbini’s bowling attack scoring freely. Crisp hitting and sound pick up made his play jovial to watch. Pradeep Panta supported with his form to guide the team 37 runs in 6th over. Mercurial bowler Kiran Bhattarai leaked unprovoked 23 runs including 6 wides just in 2 overs. Fellow paceman Ketan Pokharel though economical was blunt. On the back of good foundation with two set batsmen, Myagdi was cruising to make a sizeable total. To restrict the flow of run, Lumbini brought their tweakers. This has been a proven success story for them. With the introduction of slow bowlers, the batsmen had fallacy of making quick runs. Myagdi showed an immense lack of cricketing ’Mantra’. Both Manish (0) and Pradeep (16) had serious lapsed of judgement playing rash shots under crucial phase. While Pawan’s little cameo came to end with Dipendra’s flighted delivery, adjudged LBW. As a result, Myagdi lost four key wickets within first 10 overs of the innings to throw away a good start. Both Dipendra Bhattarai and Sagar Khadka celebrated with 2 and 3 wickets. The pressure created by loss of wickets led Myagdi to slid 41 for 4 in 10th overs. Even with early loss of wickets, Myagdi had key batsmen like Suraj Bariyait, Dev Biswokarma and Bishnu Bhandari to make a positive total, however the day belonged to Lumbini. Ram Chalise bowled with ‘Midas touch’ claiming four wickets. This crippled Myagdi so much that the aspiration for their victory would have been a miracle, playing only 17 overs for 57 runs on board. Lumbini’s nominal run chase had a catastrophic sequence. Inform batsman Avaya Shrestha lost his wicket just for 10 runs. Govind karki (5), Noor Thapa (0), Ketan Pokharel (4) all got out cheaply. Returning fresh from head injury, Manoj KC once again dazzled with 3 key wickets. Captain Pradeep Panta also tormented the batsmen with his fine spell, capturing 2 vital wickets. Captain Dipendra Bhattarai added valuable 17 runs to pull the weight towards Lumbini. His departure caused another mini collapse with Safal Basnet (1) and Sushant Koirala (2) failed to response. This exposed both contentment in Myagdi camp and the flaws in Lumbini’s batting line up. Lumbini’s reliance on Sagar Khadka’s (6) contribution had staged. He guided the team to victory just in 15 overs. Too little too late as Myagdi simply did not had enough runs to defend. Ram Chalise was judged man of the Match for his outstanding bowling effort. Lumbini may be pleased with the win but one cause for concern was that there was little contribution from the top order batsmen in the side even for modest total losing 7 wickets chasing 58 runs does not favour Lumbini’s batting power. The victory takes Lumbini to compete final with Laligurans, setting up an exciting prospect.