Sports
Armed Police Force entered the final of the women’s cricket competition under the ninth National Games with a convincing 67-run victory over Lumbini on Monday.
Neri Thapa and Jyoti Pandey played instrumental roles with the ball and bat in the APF win at the Pokhara Cricket Stadium.
Put into bat by Lumbini, APF scored 129 runs losing 3 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Pandey became the highest scorer in the competition, cracking 69 runs off 61 balls with seven fours. Samjhana Khadka of Nepal Police Club had earlier scored 60 against Province 1.
APF lost captain Sita Ranamar for 11 runs in the fourth over when she was caught behind by wicketkeeper Lakshmi Choudhary off the bowling of Manisha Rana.
Indu Verma was stumped for 11 runs, while Mamata Chaudhary was bowled for 16 runs by Kritika Marasini. Roma Thapa joined Pandey to take the score to 129, while remaining unbeaten on 12 runs off 13 balls. Lumbini bowler Marasini took two wickets for 20 runs in 4 overs. Manisha Rana took a wicket for 25 runs in 4 overs.
They will meet winners of the other match between Nepal Police Club and Bagmati Province. The final and third-place playoff will be on Tuesday.
Chasing a target of 130 runs for victory, Lumbini were bowled out for 62 runs in 18.2 overs.
For Lumbini, Sushmita Bajagain made 12 runs off 23 balls and was the lone batter to reach double figures against tight APF attack.
Spinner Neri Thapa troubled the Lumbini batters, mixing her sharp turn with bounce. She got opener Lakshmi Chaudhary caught by Mamata Chaudhary on 5 runs in the seventh over. Medium pace bowler Indu Verma then bowled Ashma Pulami Magar for 6 runs from 24 balls.
Thanpa then bowled Madhu DC for 5 runs to complete her hat-trick, and added one more wicket to her kitty removing Jigyasha Thapa for naught. Kamala Ghartimagar also fell without scoring as she was bowled by Sita Ranamagar.
Neri Thapa of APF picked four wickets with 7 runs in her 4 overs. Rekha Rawal, Indu Burma, Suman Bishta, Sushma Shrestha and Sita Ranamar all took one wicket each.
