Sudurpaschim Beat Chitwan by 5 Wickets in NPL Match 11

Sudurpaschim Royals recovered from 70 for 4 to chase down 130 against Chitwan Rhinos at Kirtipur on Monday, winning NPL Match 11 by five wickets with 20 balls to spare.

McMullen blitz and a calm finish in the 130 chase

Sudurpaschim Royals made a flying start to a modest chase and then had to win it twice. Set 130 by Chitwan Rhinos in the second match of Monday's double-header, Sudurpaschim lost their first wicket with only three runs on the board, but Brandon McMullen changed the shape of the innings in a single burst. The Scotland all-rounder smashed 43 off 21 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes, and shared a 31-run stand with Binod Bhandari, who made 11, before adding 36 with Ishan Pandey for the third wicket.

The chase then wobbled badly. The dismissals of McMullen and captain Dipendra Singh Airee left Sudurpaschim at 70 for 4, and a target that had looked comfortable suddenly asked questions of the middle order. Pandey answered them with patience rather than panic, making 25 off 29 balls, and his 33-run partnership with Aarif Sheikh for the fifth wicket took the sting out of the game. After Pandey fell, Aarif, unbeaten on 20 off 26 balls, joined Sherfane Rutherford, who finished on 21 not out off 15 balls with two fours and a six, to see Sudurpaschim home at 131 for 5 in 16.4 overs.

For Chitwan, Ranjit Kumar was the one bowler who kept the chase honest, taking three wickets for 28 runs in his four overs, while Rijan Dhakal and Mausam Dhakal claimed one wicket each. But a total of 129 rarely survives a 43 off 21 at the top of the order, and once McMullen had taken the required rate down, Chitwan needed early wickets in clusters that never quite arrived.

Bopara 49 holds together a modest Chitwan total

Chitwan's innings never found a gear above steady. Asked to bat first after losing the toss at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, the Rhinos were reduced to 27 for 2 before Ravi Bopara began to rebuild. Batting at number four, Bopara made 49 off 40 balls, with three fours and two sixes, and fell one run short of a half-century while attempting a big shot. During the innings he also passed 10,000 runs in T20 cricket, a milestone covered in detail elsewhere on this site.

Bopara first put on 35 with Dawid Malan, who made 16, and then added 32 with captain Sikandar Raza for the fourth wicket. As the Kathmandu Post reported, Raza captained Chitwan on Monday, with Bopara having led the side in their previous match while Raza was unavailable on Zimbabwe duty, and Kushal Malla absent from the playing XI. Raza himself managed only 15 off 20 balls, and none of Chitwan's other batters passed 20 except Bibek Kumar Yadav, whose 17 off 15 balls ended with a run out off the final delivery. Arjun Saud made 15 and Tom Taylor finished unbeaten on six as Chitwan closed on 129 for 6.

The pattern of the innings tells its own story: three partnerships of substance, but no one able to bat through and accelerate at the death. Chitwan's scoring stayed in single figures per over for long stretches, and a side that had won its opener and shared the points in a washed-out second game was, for the first time this season, defending a total rather than dictating one.

Bowlers keep Chitwan to 129 after the toss decision

Dipendra Singh Airee's decision to bowl first was vindicated by a disciplined collective effort rather than one outstanding spell. Scott Kuggeleijn took two wickets for Sudurpaschim, while Hemant Dhami, Airee himself and Anil Kharel claimed one each, and the attack never allowed Chitwan's batters to settle into the kind of partnership that turns 130 into 160. Dev Khanal fell for seven early on, and the early strikes meant Bopara was always rebuilding rather than launching.

That control mattered because Chitwan's bowling, led by Ranjit Kumar, showed that 129 was not a formality. Sudurpaschim's collapse to 70 for 4 proved the pitch offered something to bowlers who hit their lengths, and had McMullen's blitz not already done so much damage, the game could have tightened further. In the end, the difference between the sides was not the bowling — both attacks took wickets at useful moments — but the batting: Sudurpaschim had one innings of real momentum in McMullen's 43, while Chitwan's best, Bopara's 49, came at a strike rate that kept the total within reach.

What the second win changes for Sudurpaschim

This was the win Sudurpaschim needed, and its timing matters more than its margin. The Royals arrived at Kirtipur on Monday in seventh place, with one win and two defeats from their first three matches: a seven-wicket loss to defending champions Lumbini Lions, a six-wicket win over Pokhara Avengers, and a 35-run defeat to Biratnagar Kings. A third defeat in four games would have left a two-time beaten finalist chasing the season from the bottom half of the table. Instead, Sudurpaschim now have four points from four matches, level on points with the tally that led the table after Match 10, and a net run rate story they can still repair.

For Chitwan, the defeat is a first check, not a crisis. They keep three points from three matches, having beaten Biratnagar Kings in their opener before their game against Lumbini Lions was abandoned because of rain, and they remain in the thick of the early race. But the match exposed a reliance on Bopara that better bowling attacks will test: when the veteran was the only batter to pass 40, and the captain and the middle order could not convert starts, 129 was all they had. Defending champions Lumbini Lions are now the only unbeaten team in the tournament, which sharpens the context for both sides.

The broader lesson of Match 11 is about how this season is being won. The teams that have taken control of games have done so through one decisive individual burst — a fifty, a four-wicket spell, a powerplay charge — rather than through long, even contributions across the order. McMullen provided that burst here, and Sudurpaschim's calm finish, after their mid-innings wobble, suggests a side learning to close games rather than just start them. With Biratnagar Kings against Janakpur Bolts and Lumbini Lions against Pokhara Avengers to follow on Tuesday, the points table will move again within a day, but Sudurpaschim have at least ensured they move with it rather than after it. Fans can follow the remaining fixtures on the schedule page.