Janakpur Bolts Beat Kathmandu by 8 Wickets in NPL Match 5

Janakpur Bolts beat Kathmandu Gorkhas by eight wickets in NPL Season 3 Match 5 at TU Ground, Kirtipur, on Thursday, with Moeen Ali's unbeaten 58 anchoring a 116-run chase that was finished with 16 balls to spare.

Moeen Ali and Saif Hassan seal the chase

Chasing 116, Janakpur Bolts reached 116 for 2 in 17.2 overs, winning with 16 balls to spare against Kathmandu Gorkhas at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. The chase was never allowed to drift: after two early wickets, the unbeaten pair took Janakpur home without further loss, and the winning runs came with more than two overs still in hand.

Moeen Ali led the chase with an unbeaten 58 off 51 balls, hitting three fours and three sixes. He shared an unbroken 79-run third-wicket stand with Saif Hassan, who finished on 40 not out off 39 balls in his first match for Janakpur. The pair came together with the score at 37 for 2 and never looked troubled, rotating the strike early and finding the boundary whenever Kathmandu's bowlers missed their lengths.

Janakpur had lost opener Trit Raj Das for five with the team score at seven, and Mayan Yadav was run out for nine with the score at 37. From there, Moeen and Saif shut the door. Ripon Mondol was Kathmandu's only wicket-taker, finishing with 1 for 17 in three overs, while captain Karan KC's two overs cost 18 runs without a breakthrough and no other Kathmandu bowler managed a dismissal.

Rahul Yadav four wickets set up the win

Kathmandu had won the toss and chosen to bat first, but were bowled out for 115 in 19.3 overs. The damage was done by Rahul Yadav, who took 4 for 31 in his four overs, dismissing both openers, captain Karan KC and Mohammad Aadil Alam. It was the young fast bowler's second impressive outing in a row, after he took two wickets on debut against Karnali, including a wicket with his first ball in the NPL.

Saif Hassan backed him up with 2 for 11 in four overs on his Janakpur debut, the most economical spell of the match, while Moeen Ali took 1 for 23, captain Harmeet Singh took 1 for 18 and Lalit Rajbanshi took 1 for 30. Five different Janakpur bowlers struck, and Kathmandu never built a partnership of substance.

Bhim Sharki was Kathmandu's top scorer with 33 off 29 balls, including four fours, but only four Kathmandu batters reached double figures. Sam Heazlett was dismissed for one with the team score at six, Harishankar Shah made nine with the score at 19, and Rashid Khan's 17 and Smit Patel's 13 were the only other scores of note. Karan KC was caught by Abhisekh Tiwari off Rahul Yadav for eight, Aadil Alam fell for a golden duck, and Shahab Alam was left unbeaten on four as the innings closed with three balls of the twentieth over unused.

Janakpur Bolts beat Kathmandu Gorkhas for first Season 3 win

The result is Janakpur's first win of Season 3, after they lost their opening match to Karnali Yaks by 19 runs in Match 3. That defeat had exposed a fragile middle order, chasing 133 and folding for 113, so a controlled chase of a modest target was exactly the response the defending champions needed. Two points from two games keeps their campaign on track before the tournament's busier stretch.

For Kathmandu, it was a losing start to their season. David Warner, the franchise's biggest signing, still had not arrived and did not feature, while James Neesham, who had been expected to anchor Janakpur's middle order, was left out of the Bolts XI entirely. Both absences were confirmed by the two teamsheets: Warner's name was nowhere in Kathmandu's XI, and Neesham's was nowhere in Janakpur's. The pre-match team news had flagged both situations, and the match played out exactly that way.

There were three T20 debuts in the match: Sumit Maharjan and Harishankar Shah for Kathmandu, and Amar Routela for Janakpur. The match was umpired by Buddhi Pradhan and Kamlesh Thakur at Kirtipur. Saif Hassan's debut deserves a line of its own: signed only days earlier, he went straight into the XI against Kathmandu and delivered with both bat and ball, taking 2 for 11 and then finishing the chase unbeaten on 40.

What the result means for the points race

Janakpur move to two points from two matches, level on points with the early leaders but with their net run rate still recovering from the 19-run defeat to Karnali. Kathmandu sit on zero points from their opener, and in an eight-team league where every side plays seven matches, a losing start puts immediate pressure on their next fixture. The chasing side won comfortably here, but the low first-innings total said as much about Kathmandu's batting as it did about Janakpur's bowling.

The deeper story of this match is Janakpur's bowling depth. Five bowlers took wickets, the debutant Saif Hassan bowled the tightest spell, and Rahul Yadav, a local fast bowler in only his second NPL match, now has six wickets in two games. If Janakpur's overseas stars are to be rotated through the season, that kind of local contribution is what will keep them competitive.

Kathmandu's problem is clearer: only Bhim Sharki passed 30, the openers fell cheaply, and the middle order never recovered once the first three wickets were down. Their next match, against Karnali Yaks on November 2, is now a must-win in all but name. Janakpur, meanwhile, face Pokhara Avengers on November 1, and a second straight win would put the defending champions firmly in the playoff race. The points table after Match 5, the full schedule and the live scores page carry the updated picture.