Cricket: The much anticipated cricket tournament, the BCCB T20 2016, is underway in Thimphu.

The tournament began with defending champions, Takin City, taking on last season’s semi-finalist Youth XI in the opening match on May 14.

Having won the toss Takin City elected to bat first. Batting through the 20 overs, Takin City gave Youth XI 160 runs to chase down. Notable contribution for Takin City came from Kencho Norbu and Sanjeevan Gurung who scored 54 runs each.

Youth XI started shakily as they lost several wickets at an early stage. They lost four wickets at the score of 14 by the fourth over. The pressure now was on the hard hitter and the team skipper Biswadeep.

The captain did get spirit s up when he made 17 runs from  nine balls before falling to left arm pacer Sisir Gurung. Youth XI was wrapped up at a total of 76 runs losing by 83 runs. Kencho Norbu was declared the man of the match.

In the second match, BTCL Club took on last season’s runner-up BYPCC. BTCL with a revamped team, which included two hired players from the neighbouring town of Datgari, had different plans this time around and went on to score 213 runs in the quota of 20 overs. Contributions came from opening batsman Bikash Luitel with 66 runs in 41 balls and Tenzing Sherpa firing 38 runs in just 12 balls.

Chasing 214 runs, BYPCC’s captain Chencho and Dorji Loday opened the innings. They went on to score a partnership of 85 runs from 70 balls before Loday was dismissed at 12 by medium pacer Jigme Singye.  Captain Chencho scored the third 50 of the tournament but couldn’t help his team go down by 79 runs to BTCL. Off-spinner Tenzin Wangchuk who picked up five wickets was declared the man of the match.

In the third game yesterday, debutant teams PHPA and Blue Diamond faced each other. PHPA chose to bat first where Arun Goyal and AK Sood opened the batting. Blue Diamond pacer Arjun Lama got the better of AK Sood dismissing him at 26 runs. Varun replaced Sood along with opener Arun. The two made a partnership of 68 runs before Varun was dismissed at 42 runs that included four sixes and three fours.

At the end of 20 overs PHPA set a target of 167 runs. Blue Diamond openers Arjun Lama and Shyam Tamang together put 95 runs for the first wicket. Initially, Blue Diamonds looked comfortable chasing down the total run until Arjun was run-out after 40 runs.

Wickets kept on falling at regular intervals and reached a point where Blue Diamond needed 17 runs from the last six balls. It was a task impossible then for Blue Diamond with only lower order batsman left in the game, ultimately losing by 12 runs. PHPA’s Varun was announced the man of the match.

In the fourth match, Take Your Ticket (TYT) took on True Warriors. Choosing to field first, True Warriors did little to trouble opener Pasa Wangdi and Arpan who added 71 runs before the first wicket. Pasa Wangdi went on to score 95 runs not out and giving True Warriors 166 runs to chase. True Warriors had no answer to TYT’s bowling as they were wrapped up at 130 runs of which 12 runs came of extras, hence, losing by 35 runs. Pasa Wangdi was declared the man of the match.

The month-long tournament is organised by the Bhutan Cricket Council Board in collaboration with the Bhutan Olympic Committee with support from the India-Bhutan Foundation.

The winners of the tournament will take home Nu 200,000 and runner-up will be given Nu 70,000.

Contributed by

Tandin Wangchuk