Rohit Paudel's 38 and D'Arcy Short's three wickets give Lumbini a 16-run win over Janakpur

Lumbini Lions beat Janakpur Bolts by 16 runs on Thursday in the first game of the day at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. It was Match 14 of NPL Season 3. Lumbini have three wins and a no result from four games and lead the table on 7 points. It was Janakpur's third defeat in five.

Lumbini's 149

Janakpur chose to field and got D'Arcy Short with the first ball of the game, caught by Rahul Yadav off Lalit Rajbanshi.

Aasif Sheikh made 21 off 21 and Niroshan Dickwella 27 off 27. Captain Rohit Paudel top-scored with 38 off 31 balls, with four fours and a six, and Dilip Nath added 21 off 15. Ruben Trumpelmann hit two sixes in his 15 off 8 before he was run out off the last ball, and Lumbini finished on 149 for 8.

Bishal Susling took two for 21 from his four overs, and Rahul Yadav two for 17 from two.

Janakpur's collapse

Parvez Hossain Emon went for 1 on his NPL debut, lbw to Trumpelmann. Trit Raj Das (18 off 18) and Saif Hassan (28 off 25) put on 36 for the second wicket, but Short bowled Das and the game turned.

Janakpur went from 53 for 2 to 56 for 6, and were 65 for 7 when Jimmy Neesham was stumped off Sher Malla for 9. Short finished with three for 23 from four overs, and Tilak Bhandari took two for 5 from two.

Harmeet Singh (33 off 20, three sixes) and Aadity Mahata (30 not out off 24, four sixes) added 43 for the eighth wicket before Malla bowled Harmeet. Janakpur ended on 133 for 8. Moeen Ali, who left for the UAE on Tuesday, didn't play.

Rohit was player of the match. "Our performance was good in every area, especially the bowling," he said, as Kantipur reported it in Nepali. Harmeet pointed to the fielding: "Our fielding wasn't good."

The scorecard and the points table are on the match page.