{"id":58149,"date":"2026-11-12T20:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=58149"},"modified":"2026-11-12T20:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:38:18","slug":"defending-champions-lumbini-lions-become-first-team-to-qualify-for-npl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/defending-champions-lumbini-lions-become-first-team-to-qualify-for-npl-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Champions Lumbini Lions become first team to qualify for NPL playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><strong>Kathmandu, Nov 12:<\/strong> Defending champions Lumbini Lions have secured their place in the playoffs of the third edition of the Siddhartha Bank Nepal Premier League (NPL), becoming the first team to qualify for the next stage.<\/p>\n<p>Lumbini sealed their playoff berth with a four-wicket victory over Karnali Yaks in Thursday night&#8217;s encounter.<\/p>\n<p>Chasing a modest target of 106 runs, Lumbini reached 107 for six in 16.4 overs to secure the win.<\/p>\n<p>D&#8217;Arcy Short was the top scorer for Lumbini with 46 runs off 34 deliveries, including six fours and a six. Dilip Nath remained unbeaten on 28, while Niroshan Dickwella contributed 16 runs.<\/p>\n<p>For Karnali, Mark Watt delivered an impressive bowling performance, claiming four wickets for just 12 runs in his four overs, including a maiden. Pawan Sarraf and Hussain Talat picked up one wicket each.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, after winning the toss and electing to bat at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, Karnali were bowled out for just 105 in 19.2 overs.<\/p>\n<p>Karnali suffered an early collapse, losing four wickets for just 15 runs in 4.3 overs. Sompal Kami top-scored with 28 runs, followed by Hussain Talat with 24, Gulshan Jha with 13 and Pawan Sarraf with 12. None of the other batters managed to reach double figures.<\/p>\n<p>For Lumbini, Abhishek Gautam, Kishore Mahato, D&#8217;Arcy Short and Rohit Paudel claimed two wickets each, while Rubin Trumpelmann and Sher Malla picked up one wicket apiece.<\/p>\n<p>With the victory, Lumbini climbed to the top of the points table with nine points from six matches. Karnali remain seventh with four points from an equal number of games.<\/p>\n<p>The victory confirms Lumbini&#8217;s place in the playoffs, while Karnali&#8217;s chances of progressing to the next stage remain slim. The Yaks will face Chitwan Rhinos in their final league-stage fixture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu, Nov 12: Defending champions Lumbini Lions have secured their place in the playoffs of the third edition of the Siddhartha Bank Nepal Premier League (NPL), becoming the first team to qualify for the next stage. Lumbini sealed their playoff berth with a four-wicket victory over Karnali Yaks in Thursday night&#8217;s encounter. Chasing a modest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-58149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-main-news","tag-nepal-premier-leauge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58151,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58149\/revisions\/58151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}