National Women's Cricket Tournament Begins

Kathmandu: Lumbini Pradesh and departmental APF have registered victories in the first day's games of the Prime Minister's Cup National Women's Cricket Tournament starting from Saturday. In the first match played at the Lamahi Cricket Ground in Dang, Lumbini defeated State 2 by 9 wickets while in the second match, APF defeated Karnali State by 204 runs.

After losing the toss in the first match, State 2 scored 77 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Anuradha Chaudhary and Sana Prabin scored 21 runs each while Bimala Magar scored 10 runs. None of the other players of State 2 could score a right run. Lumbini's Susmita Bhusal took three wickets to wrap up Province 2 cheaply.

Lumbini completed the target of 78 runs in 16.1 overs at a loss of 1 wicket. Geeta Gosain scored 23 off 42 balls with two fours and captain Neri Thapa scored 15 off 13 balls with two fours.

In the second match, APF won the toss and elected to bat. The departmental team scored 235 runs in the allotted 20 overs with the help of captain Sita Rana Magar's 68 runs. Opener Jyoti Pandey and Sarita Magar scored 32 and 44 runs respectively to make APF a huge total. Defeated Karnali, on the other hand, lost all their wickets in 14.1 overs and managed to score only 31 runs. Karun Bhandari of APF took 5 wickets to wrap up Karnali cheaply.

Now, Karnali will play its second match against Lumbini on Sunday while APF will play Province 2. Seven states and APF clubs are participating in the competition organized by the Nepal Cricket Association with the support of the National Sports Council.

The participating teams are divided into two groups. Group A comprises APF, Province 2, Karnali, and Lumbini, while Group B comprises Far West, Bagmati, Gandaki, and Province 1. The top two teams from each group will reach the semifinals. Both the semi-final matches will be played on January 3 and the final will be played on December 5. The winner of the competition will get Rs 500,000, the runner-up Rs 300,000, and the two semi-finalists will get Rs 25,000 each. The best player will get Rs 21,000, the best batsman will get Rs 10,000, the best bowler will get Rs 5,000 and the player of the match will get Rs 2,000.