Biratnagar Kings vs Pokhara Avengers, NPL Match 22

Biratnagar Kings and Pokhara Avengers meet at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on Thursday, 12 November 2026, with both seasons at a turning point. Match 22 starts at 12:30 PM NST (11:45 AM PKT), the first of two games on the day. Biratnagar sit sixth with four points and can climb to fourth with a win. Pokhara sit last with two points and need a second straight victory to keep their playoff hopes alive. The two sides have not met each other yet this season, and with seven league matches left after Match 21, the table is tight enough that one result changes the shape of the race.

Biratnagar Kings: promise without a finish

Biratnagar have spent the season showing what they can do without quite putting a complete game together. They lost their opener to Chitwan Rhinos by eight runs, then lost to Karnali Yaks by four wickets in a game where Karnali chased down 187. It was only in Match 8 that they found their footing, beating Sudurpaschim Royals by 35 runs. The high point came in Match 12, when three of their batters reached fifty in the same innings, a first in the league, on the way to a two-run win over Janakpur Bolts. Their most recent outing was a nine-wicket defeat to Kathmandu Gorkhas, and that is the result they need to leave behind today. Two wins and three defeats from five matches, with a net run rate of minus 0.820, tells the story: the talent is there, the consistency is not.

Lokesh Bam carries the batting

Lokesh Bam is the reason Biratnagar's batting still carries weight. He leads the tournament run chart with 194 runs from five matches, and he scores them quickly, at a strike rate of 154. The innings that built the lead came against Karnali Yaks on 29 October, when he struck 87 from 52 balls with nine sixes to carry Biratnagar to 186 for 7. He followed it with 50 from 40 balls against Janakpur Bolts on 3 November, in the match where Biratnagar became the first team in league history to have three batters pass fifty in the same innings. He has reached 25 in four of his five innings, and his average of 38.80 is built on substance rather than one big day. Andre Russell has added 144 runs of his own, and Angelo Mathews has taken seven wickets in four matches. The Kings' problem has been turning those individual performances into complete games, and today is the day they need to do it.

Pokhara Avengers: a first win, at last

Pokhara arrive with something they did not have a week ago: a win. They lost their first four games, by six wickets to Sudurpaschim Royals, by nine runs to Janakpur Bolts, by eight wickets to Lumbini Lions and by 30 runs to Chitwan Rhinos, before finally winning in Match 19, when they posted 217 for 3 against Karnali Yaks and won by 63 runs. That win was their first of the season, and it arrived with the loudest individual performance of the tournament so far. The win changed the mood around the side, but it did not change the arithmetic. Pokhara are still last, with two points from five matches and a net run rate of minus 0.707, and their remaining league match after this one is against Kathmandu Gorkhas on Sunday. A defeat here would leave them needing favours from everywhere else.

Samra's century and Bhurtel's lead

Yuvraj Samra's 102 off 48 balls against Karnali is the highest individual score of the season, and it came in only his second match of the tournament. He has 121 runs from those two innings, and his century turned a side that had lost four in a row into one that posted 217 and won by 63 runs. Captain Kushal Bhurtel has 136 runs from five matches, with a best of 62, and he leads a side that finally has something to defend. The question today is whether one win can become two. Pokhara's batting finally has a shape, with Samra at the top and Bhurtel holding the middle together, and Biratnagar's bowling has been the weaker part of their game. If Samra gets going again, the Kings will have a problem.

What today decides

The arithmetic is simple for Biratnagar. A win takes them to six points and fourth place, above Chitwan Rhinos on five, with one league match left, against Lumbini Lions on Saturday. A win for Pokhara takes them to four points, level with Janakpur Bolts, Biratnagar Kings and Karnali Yaks, but still outside the top four with only the Kathmandu match left. Either way, the loser leaves Kirtipur with their season hanging by a thread. Biratnagar have the better batting on paper, led by the tournament's top scorer, while Pokhara have the momentum of a first win and a centurion in form. It is the kind of match where the first six overs will say a lot about how the rest of the afternoon goes.

The points table after Match 21

Kathmandu Gorkhas lead the table with eight points from five matches, ahead of Sudurpaschim Royals on the same points but a lower net run rate. Lumbini Lions are third on seven, Chitwan Rhinos fourth on five, and then three teams, Janakpur Bolts, Biratnagar Kings and Karnali Yaks, sit together on four points, separated only by net run rate. Pokhara Avengers are eighth on two points. Kathmandu and Sudurpaschim have already secured playoff places, and the other two places will be decided by the seven league matches still to play, starting with these two. A Biratnagar win today would put them fourth and leave Chitwan looking over their shoulder; a Pokhara win would drag four teams onto four points and make the final weekend a scramble.

Where to watch

Match 22 is shown live on Himalaya Television in Nepal and streamed on the NetTV app. The first ball is at 12:30 PM NST (11:45 AM PKT) at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. The second match of the day, Karnali Yaks against Lumbini Lions, follows at 5:00 PM NST (4:45 PM PKT), so the double-header runs from early afternoon into the evening under lights.