A team to compete for theNepal Premier League (NPL)cricket title has been decided. So far in the tournament, the Sudur Paschim Royals team, which has only lost one match in the Nepal Premiere League (NPL), has gone to the final defeating the Janakpur Bolts. Sudur Paschim, who reached the final by defeating Janakpur Bolts in the first qualifier match on Wednesday, is now just one step away from the NPL title. 

In the match held on Wednesday afternoon, Sudur confirmed their place in the final by defeating Janakpur by 8 wickets. Sudur completed the target of 140 runs given by Janakpur, with 9 balls remaining and a loss of 2 wickets. For Sudur, opener Binod Bhandari scored 58 runs while remaining unbeaten, while another opener Saif Ali Zaib scored 32 runs and captain Dipendra Singh Airi scored 20 runs not out.

Before that, Sudur, who lost the toss and bowled first, restricted Janakpur to 139-9. For Janakpur, Jimmy Neeshamscored 45 runs while Shubh Kansakar scored 26 runs. Skipper Dipendra took 3 wickets andSaif Zaib took 2 wickets to stop Janakpur's par score.

Important innings from Binod

Wicketkeeper Binod Bhandari, who is the captain of Nepal's A team and has also played for the national team, played the match-winning innings in Wednesday's win. From the start, he played single doubles from the boundary and kept the run rate balanced.

Binod has been performing well in the opening except for one or two games so far. He scored a total of 194 runs in 8 matches with scores of 23, 35, 17, 10, 33, 14, 4 and 58*. He is giving a good opening partnership with opener Saif Ali Zaib.

Binod, who could not make a big appearance despite getting a good start in some matches, converted his innings into big innings today. With the help of his half-century, Sudur defeated Janakpur and directly secured a place in the final.

While the Nepali opener batters are struggling, Binod's bat makes runs. Especially now that the T20 World Cup qualifiers are approaching, he may return to the national team. When talking to him about this, he said that he is not thinking about anything else outside. "Now I don't think about anything else when I go inside to play the game, I am enjoying it as much as I play," he said.

Binod responded that with the captaincy ofDipendra, the performance was also good. "Dipendra is the best player in Nepal at the moment. All three aspects of his batting, bowling, and fielding are good. It seems that he will continue the captaincy.

Binod said that the team seemed to be a bit weak before the start of the competition, but with the arrival of foreign players, the team seemed balanced. Stating that foreign players are fit according to the needs of the team, he said that the team is capable of winning the NPL.

On the other hand, after the last league match against Karnali, Dipendra also said that the Sudur Paschim team was good and said that the goal was to win the title from the beginning.

Another chance for Janakpur

Janakpur, who had won consecutively in four matches at the beginning of the league stage, then suffered a massive defeat by 72 runs with Sudur. After that defeat, Janakpur's firm is seen to have suffered a setback.

Even though Janakpur played in the playoffs after falling into the top two, they are not able to perform well in the beginning. The top order of Janakpur is constantly struggling.

Even in the first qualifier match on Wednesday, Janakpur's opening was not good. Lahiru Milantha and captain Asif Sheikh were dismissed cheaply. Shubh Kansakar played a good innings for a while but he got run out due to his own mistakes.

Then Jimmy Neesham played big shots to take the team's score to 139. But the score was not enough for victory. Janakpur failed to settle the batting order.

After the captain and opener Anil Shah was out of the team due to injury, Akash Tripathi, the opener of the Nepali U-19 team, got a chance in the game, but he was not given the opening. Similarly, sending Arnik Yadav to bat with 3 wickets down also proved wrong somewhere.

After the match, captain Asif Shaikh also said that there was some slowness in the middle order in batting. "Someone should have stepped up in the middle order, but that didn't happen. "The reason for sending Araniko up is because we are looking for a left/right combination," he said Janakpur can make Akash Tripathi and Asif open, Milantha 1 down, Thakar 2 down, and then Shubh, Neesham, Mohsin, and Araniko can bat according to the situation."

Even if Janakpur is defeated, there is another chance to reach the final. Janakpur will play against Karnali Yaks in the second qualifier match on Thursday. The winner of that match will play the final against Sudurpaschim on Saturday. Captain Asif Shaikh said that he is hopeful of meeting and defeating Sudurpaschim again in the final.