Sagar Pun’s and Shankar Rana’s fighting innings followed by master-piece of bowling spell by Sompal Kami scripted the first win for Butwal Blasters in inaugural season of Pokhara Premier League. They registered 70 runs’ win against Chitwan Rhinos.
Rhinos’s skipper, Paras Khadka, won the toss and invited Blasters to bat first. Blasters got the nightmarish start as they were 3 down for just 10 runs. Karan KC sent back Blasters’ both foreign players, Chirag Suri and Rohan Mustafa, in consecutive balls. Then, Shankar Rana shared 68 runs with opener Sagar Pun to bring Blasters back in the match. Rana scored maximum 48 runs from 41 balls with the help of 5 fours and a six. Pun anchored the innings with 46 runs in his tally. Karan KC picked up maximum 2 wickets along with a wicket each for Gauchan and Giri. Blasters looked energetic and confident while returning back to Pavilion as they recovered their wounded innings beautifully and propelled their total to 135 runs.
In response, Rhinos were all down and dusted by Blasters’ pace bowling attack. Sompal Kami picked up maximum 4 wickets, expensing just 13 runs. Kami’s opening duo, Lalit Bhandari, grabbed 2 wickets whereas third seemer, Avinash Bohora, chipped in with a wicket. Bipin Khatri and Rohan Mustafa also accounted a wicket each. There was nothing more from Rhinos batsmen as Bhuwan Karki, who batted at no.10, scored maximum 19 runs. Sompal Kami, who hunted (Anil Sah, Paras Khadka, Aarif Sheikh and Smith Patel), was adjudged as man of the match.
