Morang, Nov. 5:With a final match day of the league stage remaining, Sudurpashchim Province and Lumbini Province are meeting in the final of Naresh Shrestha Memorial U19 Men’s National Cricket Tournament in Biratnagar, Morang.

The tournament is being participated by seven provincial teams and they are competing in a single round-robin format with the top two teams playing in the final. The two games — Bagmati vs Karnali and Lumbini vs Madhes — on Tuesday will mark the end of the league stage.

However, inspite of the results of Tuesday, the final two teams have been confirmed. Despite one match remaining, Lumbini is already at the top of the table with five wins in five matches accumulating a total of 10 points. They are followed by Sudurpashchim Province, with five wins in six matches after defeating host Koshi on Monday.

Sudurpashchim defeated the hosts by a margin of 123 runs as they bundled them out for 60 runs while defending 184 runs in 50 overs. On the other hand, Karnali registered their maiden win of the tournament in the final game against Madhes in the other match of Monday.

Karnali, which had lost the last five games, defeated Madhes by 47 runs. Madhes lost all wickets for 86 runs while chasing 134.

Lumbini’s dominant display

Lumbini began their campaign in Biratnagar with a win over the host on Match Day 2 on October 27. Posting a target of 136 runs, they restricted Koshi to a paltry 60. They then defeated Sudurpashchim by 41 runs on October 28 before emerging victorious over Karnali by four wickets two days later.

Posting a massive target of 279 runs against Bagmati, they defeated the central province on October 31 by 102 runs. It is the highest total in the tournament so far.

They then defeated Gandaki by five wickets while succesfully chasing the target of 87 runs on November 2. Now, they face fifth-positioned Madhes on Tuesday at Girija Prasad Koirala Cricket 

Stadium in Baijanathpur.

Moreover, the players of Lumbini are also dominating the individual statistics. Santosh Yadav is the third-highest run scorer in the tournament with 169 runs in five games. Likewise, Yadav tops the bowling stats as the highest wicket taker: 19 wickets in five games. Nar Sarki of Lumbini holds the best batting strike (136.36) 

rate as well.

Meanwhile, Sonu Ansari of Koshi and Roshan Bishwakarma of Bagmati are the two top scorers in the tournament with 209 runs in six games and 178 runs in five games respectively.

Lumbini has the chance to enter the final as the only unbeaten team in the tournament by defeating Madhes on November 5; however, Madhes also has players good enough to upset Lumbini from doing so.