Kathmandu, Jan. 6: Spin bowlers shone in both games on the opening day of the Jay Trophy in Janakpur and Parsa on Sunday as the batters of all four teams struggled in the longer format.

Firstly, the two inaugural games of the tournament started late due to foggy weather in the morning. Nepal Police Club (NPC) elected to field first against Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) at Narayani Cricket Ground in Birgunj while Madhes Province elected to bat first against Bagmati Province at Ramjanaki Ground in Janakpur.

TAC posted 121 runs before getting bundled out in 34.4 overs by Police while Madhes could just reach the three-digit mark as they were all out for 102 runs in 35.3 overs.

Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi and Sandeep Lamichhane stood tall for Police and Bagmati respectively when their teams bowled first. Lalit, a left-arm orthodox bowler, bagged a seven-wicket haul while Sandeep, a right-hand leg spinner, claimed a fifer.

All the seven victims of Lalit were caught out, including two behind the stumps. Regarding Sandeep, he struck three batsmen for a leg before and one was caught out. Sandeep completed his fifer when Abhishekh Tiwari got clean bowled.

While Kushal Bhurtel, Sarwan Yadav and Rashid Khan took the remaining three wickets for Police, Surya Tamang, the leading wicket-taker in the Men’s PM Cup 2024, helped Bagmati destroy Madhes’ batting line-up further.

Surya, a left-arm orthodox, took three wickets in his 2.3 over spell giving only seven runs. Nandan Yadav and Pratish GC took the other two wickets to bundle out Madhes.

Army batted first with a jumbled batting lineup. Sompal Kami was at the non-striking end with opener Santosh Karki while Binod Bhandari was in at seven. In at four, Kushal Malla was the highest scorer for TAC with 25 off 38.

On the other hand, Mayan was the highest scorer for Madhes with 21 off 36 in their first inning of 102 runs.

Nevertheless, the scenario repeated when the roles changed between the teams. Both Police and Bagmati also could not do enough when it was their turn with the bat.

Before stumps, Police had posted 103 runs in 24 overs but in the loss of seven wickets. Likewise, Bagmati had lost two wickets in 13 overs with 34 runs on the board. Thus, at the end of Day 1, Police and Bagmati trailed by 18 and 68 runs respectively.

Losing the opening pair of Kushal Bhurtel and Arjun Saud for a golden duck, Police had a poor start, and the major reason was Shahab Alam, another spinner.

Army’s Shahab Alam, who was not as economical as other spinners, also bagged a fifer in the second inning; he gave 55 runs in 11 overs with a maiden.

Alam was involved in the wickets of all top five batsmen of Police. While he caught out Bhurtel in the spell of Sompal, he was the bowler when the other four returned to the pavilion. Pawank Karki also took one for Army.

Police would have also collapsed sooner had Gulshan Kumar Jha not anchored the inning and kept their batting alive for the second day. Jha was not out at 34 off 36 with in-at-nine Prem Tamang (1 off 8).

Bagmati also lost their openers for a paltry. Ashutosh Ghiraiya (0 off 10) and Rit Gautam (3 off 7) were bowled out by Bishal Patel and Rupesh Singh respectively. Ishan Pandey (9 off 38) and Shubh Kansakar (22 off 23) were on the crease for Bagmati at Stumps.

Day 2 of the game is also likely to start late as Madhes Province is seeing an extremely foggy morning.