Preamble

Amidst a lot of anticipation and excitement among the cricket lovers of D2, the D2 Cricket Tri-Series 20-20 got underway on 4th April 2010 at the IOE, Pulchowk ground. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and many eager cricketers turned up early on the ground bearing the motto “Maximum participation and lots of fun”, as promoted by cricket’s premier evangelist Mukesh Sah.

The three teams taking part were QA-Admin led by Subin Shrestha, R&D led by Ritesh Sapkota and Operation led by Anup Sharma.
The first day of the tournament kicked off with two games. The first one was the clash between QA-Admin and R&D. The game was expected to be a tight contest. However, the QA-Admin team seemed to be slightly off just before the game started at 7 A.M. Some people at the ground remarked that this was due to the absence of their much beloved astrologer Badri Adhikari. The result was a morale crushing 7 wicket defeat of the QA-Admin at the hands of the mighty R&D. R&D won the toss and elected to field first in order to take advantage of the early morning dew on the ground and things turned favorable for them. Superb bowling by Chiranjib Karna enabled them to shatter QA’s dream of building a high score. QA were bowled out cheaply, managing only 48 runs. In reply, R&D easily chased down the target with some cracking strokes by Tejaswani along the way.

In the second game, QA-Admin took on the Operation team. Even though it was the second match on the trot for QA, the team seemed to be rejuvenated and eager to prove that they were not to be taken lightly. QA won the toss and elected to bat first. Well aware of mistakes that they made against R&D, QA made a sensible and level-headed start. There was some fine bowling from Bishesh and Ashutosh but even that couldn’t stop the flow of runs. The QA team forged on and managed to post a respectable total of 113 runs. In response, Operation’s openers, the dynamic duo of Bishesh and Prajowal came out all guns blazing. With an enthralling display of fine batting skills they built a first wicket partnership of 42 runs. The game seemed to be completely in favor of Operation at this stage and QA were staring down the barrel at two defeats in a row on the same day! But, as they say, nothing can be predicted in cricket till the last ball is bowled. The resurgent QA hit hard and turned the game on its head. Even the star player of Operations, Suman Shrestha, from who nothing less than magic was expected had to return without troubling the scorers. The Operations batsmen soon crumbled under the pressure and were bowled out for a paltry 85 runs. For QA, it was an awesome morale boosting victory; one that ensured that they came storming back into the tournament.

First Match

Team QA-Admin vs Team R&D

Team R&D won by 7 wickets (With 9.6 overs remaining)
Team QA – Admin’s Inning (20 overs maximum)

Fall of wicket

Bowling

Team R&D’s Inning (20 overs maximum)

Bowling

Second Match
Team QA-Admin vs Team Operation
Team QA-Admin’s Inning (20 overs maximum)

Bowling

Team Operation’s Inning (20 overs maximum)

Fall of wicket

Bowling