Janakpur Bolts has defeated Kathmandu Gurkhas by 5 wickets, becoming the first team to book berth in the playoff of the ongoing Nepal Premier League (NPL) 2024.
Janakpur reached the 102-run target at the loss of 5 wickets with 25 balls remaining. To secure the win, James Neesham topped the score with 27 runs, hitting 1 four and 3 sixes off 17 balls followed by Harsh Thaker with 25 runs while Lahiru Milantha and Mohammad Mohsin 16 and 13 runs, respectively. Similarly, Harsh Thaker contributed 11 runs. The other batsmen could not achieve significant runs.
In reply, Karan KC took 2 wickets followed by Karan KC, Gerhard Erasmus and Dipesh Kandel grabbed 1 wicket each for Kathmandu.
Earlier, electing to bat first after winning the toss, Kathmandu notched up 101 runs losing all wickets in 19.3 overs. Gerhard Erasmus made the highest score with 20 runs followed by Karan KC with 19 runs while Stephen Eskinazi hit 17 runs. The other batsmen could not achieve double-digit runs.
To limit Kathmandu to such a low target, Lalit Rajbanshi and Sher Malla took the highest 3 wickets each followed by Mohammad Mohsin with 2 wickets while Kishore Mahato and Arniko Yadav grabbed 1 wicket for Janakpur.
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