Kathmandu: The 17th edition of Nepal's National Championship - the Jai Trophy is underway.

Out of 18 matches, 24 league matches have already been played at the time of writing.

In a shock, Kathmandu, the defending champions and winner of its first two matches comprehensively, has lost its place in the semifinals.

Bara, 15th Jai Trophy champion and third last year, and Kapilvastu, last year's Finalist, have already stormed into semifinals.

By defeating Kathmandu by five wickets, Parsa is certain to reach the last four.

For the third time, the National Championship is being held in Kathmandu. It has already observed the 1st and 2nd national trophy 20 years ago.

And there's already some memorable performances in the 17th Jai Trophy.

Altogether 25 districts will participate in the 17th Jai Trophy. Tribhuvan University (TU) was given permission to play as a District team although it was eliminated form the qualifying round unfortunately. There were five other new Districts participating this year.

The qualifying round in Birgunj saw 13 teams competing for 4 spots in the final round. Last year's top 12 teams (group first, second and third) were given automatic entry to the final round.

Thirteen teams were divided into four groups and they played each other to be the group first. Lalitpur, Jhapa, Siraha and Dhanusa were the fortunate teams to enter the final round. The important match between TU and Siraha ended in a tie and the winner was decided by spinning the coin.

TU team has filed a protest in CAN (Cricket Association of Nepal) accusing TB Shaha, vice chairman of CAN and tournament co-ordinator, of misleading and misguiding the rules of cricket.

The final round in Kathmandu started without a bang. Lack of advertisement decreased the number of spectators amazingly and a few fans in the stadium were angry with CAN for not using the ground scoreboard.

In the opening match, Kaski beat Lalitpur easily by nine wickets. Kaski were given the victory target of a century. The three wicket haul and 35 not out of Pramesh Gurung was good enough to earn him Man of the Match.

Kapilvastu's three wicket win over Sunsari was more competitive. The half century by Kiran Agrawal of Sunsari tool them to 180. The damage of good going Sunsari was done by Mahan Thapa (4-33), Vijay Yadav (2-34) and Raju Khadka (2-24).

Kapilvastu lost both its openers at 9 but Vinaya Tripathi (36) and Bharat Sharma (48) added 91 runs for third wickets to make it easy. Man of the Match was Sunsari's Amir Akhtar (36 runs and 3-44).

Lalitpur proved themselves too weak to compete as they were thrashed by Kapilvastu and Sunsari. Kapilvasu won by 8 wickets after 146 was set a target. Dhiraj Gyawali of Lalitpur made an umbeaten 52 but not support from other put it to vain. Raju Khadka took 3 for 23. Vinay Tripathy's unbeaten 54 of 54 balls was awarded.

In the other match Lalitpur made 100 and Sunsari won by 10 wickets. Kiran Agrawal made unbeaten 48 and took 2 wickets for 6 runs to be Man of the Match. The young hero of Sunsari took 4 wickets for 31 runs.

Sunsari won to Kaski by 15 runs. Pramesh Gurung of Kaski made 93 but Basant Sharma (4-22), Amir Akthar (3-45) and Bhamesh Thapa (2-18) made Pramesh's contribution only good to be judged Man of the Match not for the win.

Kapilvastu eliminated Kaski by 92 runs to make it to the semifinal. Raju Khadka's half century (53 of 44 balls) and Basant Ragmi's 48 took them to 239. But Kaski was nowhere near it. They only managed 147 with no valuable contributions coming in. Basant Regmi took 3 for 21 to win Man of the Match. Winning all the matches Kapilvastu went into the final and losing all the matches, Lalitpur was relegated to play qualifying round for next year.

The Group B matches saw Bara performing well under the captaincy of Pawan Agrawal. The national captain has not performed very best with the bat but surely has been outstanding with spinning the ball. Bara won the first match with Banke by 8 wickets. Young Kaniska 'Bicky' Chaugai made unbeaten 44 but it was Rupesh Upreti who did really well. Rupesh took 3 wkts for 19 runs in 10 overs and Banke managed only 94. The last pair of Banke added 28 runs.

Bara were really threatened by Jhapa who bowled out them for only 102 runs on the scoreboard. Only Kaniska (29) and Binod Das (22) got some runs. But the combined bowling efforts by Binod Das (2-12), Abhaya Sharma (2-18), Pawan Agrawal (2-13) and Rupesh Upreti (3-9) put Jhapa out in 24 overs and 56 runs. Rupesh once again claimed Man of the Match.

After Rupendehi beat Jhapa by six wkts and Banke by five wkts, their match with Bara was crucial and it went the other way as they lost by 18 runs. Bara made 123/8 in 28 overs of the rain affected match. Durga Sen took three wkts. But Rupendehi couldn't utilize the situation of 49/1 and were all out for 105 runs. Durga Sen tried to win making 20 in 21 balls but couldn't. Spinners of Bara Pawan Agrawal (3-22) and Sanjam "Shane" Regmi (4-18) did the damage. Man of the Match went to unbeaten 28 by Dipesh Shrestha of Bara.

Although Banke were out of tournament, it was a memorable tournament for Irfan Siddique who tool 7 wkts spinning the ball against Jhapa. Jhapa was relegated as they lost to Banke by 126 runs.

The Group A matches was well of records. Paresh Lohani of Kathmandu scored back-to-back centuries. He had made unbeaten 111 in last year's final and made 126 in the first match against Chitwan. Kathmandu put on a huge target of 305 runs for Chitwan. Birendra Shah of Kathmandu hit 4 huge sixes to his 54 in 37 balls and Sandeep Shrestha put 43. Chitwan only managed to take 5 wkts in Kathmanudu's innings and lost all their wkts for 80 runs on their own. They lost by 224 runs as captain Kiran Rana's outstanding performance (5-1 of 9.1 overs) was well supported by Rajesh Pabt (2-20) and Raju Basnet (2-21).

Kathmandu won the second match with huge margin against Dhanusha. Dhanusha lost by 195 runs. They let Kathmandu to put 264/8 in 50 overs. Sandeep Shrestha scored 74 and Monir Shreshta (44) and Paresh Lohani (35) put good contribution. Again Kiran Rana (3-15), Rajesh Pant (3-11) and Raju Basnet (2-12) helped the team to bowl out Dhanusha out for 69 runs in 27.5 overs.

Parsa won the matches against Chitwan and Kathmandu. A bad luck day for mighty Kathmandu batting line up was ustilised well by Parsa. Parsa bowl them out for 97 in 29.5 overs surprising everybody and won by 5 wkts literally keeping them out of the tournament. If Parsa lost to weaker Dhanusha, then only there is some chance for Kathmandu. Rajeev Shrestha of Parsa wrecked Kathmandu taking three and other bowler shared the wickets. It was well disciplined bowling performance by them. And they made the runs with help of Pratap Maharjan's aggressive 18 and Kimon Ohja's 24.

Parsa won against Chitwan who made 138 runs. Jay Prakash Sarraf took the only second hat trick of the tournament history against Chitwan. Two years ago Binod Das had done it. He also scored unbeaten 35 to bring win of seven wickets.

Jai Trophy still has a lot of fun and enjoyment. Who will win the 17th edition? I can't guess, you can guess and wait till next issue of BTTW to check it.

(with help of Binod Pandey)

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd