In the first ever season of Pokhara Premier League, Pokhara Paltans defeated Chitwan Rhinos by three wickets with four balls remaining to claim the title. PPL is the biggest professional franchise-based T20 cricket tournament in Nepal in terms of prize money and involvement of players. In the beautiful city of Pokhara, a total of 6 teams from different regions of Nepa competed for the title.
In today's final game, Pokhara Paltans won the toss and elected to field first. Batting first Chitwan Rhinos made 160 runs in loss of 5 wickets in 20 over. Anil Kumar Shah and Harishankhar Shah opened the inning for Rhinos. Harishankhar Shah was caught by Binod Bhandari in the bowl of Lalit Rajbansi. He contributed just eight runs facing 12 balls. Anil Shah played good inning scoring 37 runs. Captain Khadka brought up his Half-Century off just 36 balls; he contributed 51 runs for the Rhinos. Sunny Patel once again showed his impressive batting scoring 43 runs in just 21 balls, Patel hit three fours and four sixes. Karan KC was got caught on the first ball he faced today, and Aarif Sheikh remained not out scoring 14 runs facing 11 balls. Krisha Kari got two wickets meanwhile Mohammed Naveed, and Lalit Narayan Rajbansi got one wicket each.
With Pokhara Paltans chasing 161 runs to win the match and the Pokhara Premier League. They didn’t enjoy best of a start as they lost their opener, Kushal Bhurtel in the second ball of the inning. Ravi Inder Singh came and bat well, Aasif Sheikh and Ravi made 61 runs partnership before Aasif was run out by Sunny Patel. At the end of 6 overs, Paltans scorecard read 65/2. Ravi Inder Singh completed his half-century in just 29 balls, and he was playing brilliantly. Pokhara Paltans chase suffered yet another setback when Anil Shah caught Mohammed Naved in the bowl of Patel.
Ravi Inder Singh and captain Sharad Veshawakar steered Paltan’s chase with a partnership of 50 runs. Sharad was out on the 17th over scoring 24 runs. At that stage, Pokhara was at 148/4. New batsman Rohit Kumar Poudel got out in the same over without scoring a run. Then Chitwan Rhinos captain Parash came into the attack. In the Paras Over Ravi Inder Singh got out, he was caught by Aarif Sheikh on the ball of Parash. He played a match winning inning for Pokhara Paltans scoring 90 runs off 58 balls. Pokhara was just four runs away to win the first Pokhara Premier League in the last over. Binod Bhandari smashed four in the second ball of Bhuwan Karki, and Pokhara Paltans won the first Pokhara Premier League.
Congratulations Pokhara Paltans
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