Kathmandu Gorkhas defeated Karnali Yaks by 5 wickets in the 19th match of the Nepal Premier League (NPL), a franchise-based T20 cricket tournament, held in Kirtipur.
Chasing the 150-run target, Kathmandu reached the target in 18 overs losing 5 wickets. With the win, Kathmandu has inched closer to the playoffs, dealing a blow to Karnali's hopes of advancing further.
Gerhard Erasmus topped the score with 43 runs followed by John Simpson with 41 runs while Ben Charlesworth and Milind Kumar contributed 34 and 15 runs, respectively. The other batsmen could not achieve significant runs.
Earlier, electing to bat first after winning the toss at the TU International Cricket Ground on Sunday, Karnali notched up 149 runs losing 7 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
Gulsan Jha topped the score with 49 runs including 6 fours and 3 sixes off 22 deliveries followed by Pawan Sarraf with 35 runs while Mark Watt, Najibullah Zadran and Deepak Dumre scored 30, 12 and 10 runs, respectively. The other batsmen could not score double digit runs.
In reply, Rashid Khan took the highest 2 wickets while Karan KC, Milind Kumar and Santosh Yadav grabbed 1 wicket each for Kathmandu. Kathmandu Gorkhas is in the 2nd position with 8 points from six matches while Karnali Yaks is in the sixth position with 2 points from 5 matches.
Eight teams are competing in the league stage, each playing seven matches. Now Kathmandu Gorkhas will pay a match against Pokhara Avengers and Karnali is yet to play two matches one with Pokhara Avengers and the other Janakpur Bolts.
The four highest-scoring teams will advance to the playoffs.
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