True Warriors sealed their spot in Qualifier 2 of the Bhutan T20 Smash 2022 with 77 runs win over Druk Gladiators today at the Jigmethang cricket ground, Thimphu. Namgay Thinley’s incredible four wicket haul and Ngawang Thinley’s all-round performance with both bat and bowl powered True Warriors to an easy 77 runs victory in a low scoring match Druk Gladiators chose to field after winning the toss and resulted in their favor as they got Kinga Loday out for a duck off the final ball in the first over by Deepak Verma caught by Sajibul Mai. Deepak Verma went on to get the second wicket off Namgay Thinley, trapping him LBW in the third over. Deepak Verma got rid of Kezang Nima for a duck as he was bowled out in the fifth over to claim his third wicket. True Warriors found themselves in a state of bother before Ngawang Thinley and Tarun Kumar added 41 runs for the fourth wicket partnership. The partnership was broken after Deepak Verma was brought back to bowl his final over and getting Tarun Kumar (21 off 29) and ending an impressive spell of 4 wickets and giving only 13 runs. Ngawang Thinley and skipper Prashant Chhetri started to pull back the innings for the team as the two added 46 runs partnership before Ngawang was caught by Sonam Dorji off Sahidul Islam’s bowl. Prashant Chhetri played a captain’s innings as he scored an unbeaten 40 off 30 balls taking the team total to 137. Druk Gladiator’s needed “run a ball” situation to take them forward and their openers did just that as Deepak Verma and Vijay Sagar Gundala scored 27 runs off the first three overs before losing Gundala, caught by Yueyong Phuntsho off Kinley Penjor’s bowling. ahidul Islam was trapped LBW by Namgay Thinley off his first bowl in the fourth over. Namgay Thinley went on to get his second wicket bowling out Gladiators skipper Deepak Verma in the seventh over. True Warrior bowlers were all over the Gladiator batsmen as non-of the batsmen managed to score in double digit as the team was all out for 60 runs in 12 overs. Namgay Thinley picked up four wickets whereas Kezang Nima picked 2 wickets and Ngawang got three wickets to thrash Gladiators by 77 runs. Namgay Thinley was declared the player of the match.
True Warriors take the final spot
True Warrior cricket club beat the Wangdue Radaps convincingly by eight wickets today at Jigmethang cricket ground to consolidate the fourth spot of the ongoing Bhutan T20 Smash 2022. Wangdue Radaps started poorly, losing Jigme Tenzin in the second over as he was bowled by Kezang Nima. Radaps lost their second as Ram Chandra Mongar was trapped infront LBW by Thukten Yoezer. Yeshi Wangdi was the second victim for Kezang Nima as he was also bowled out. Opening batsman Pema Dorji was the lone batsman who showed some resistance against the True Warriors bowlers as he started to collect some important runs for the team. Pema was well supported on the other end as Pema and Sangay Tenzin put together a 60 runs partnership for the next wicket. However, Sangay Tenzin lost his persistence and found his stumps “walk in the park” from a beauty from speedster, Yueyong Phuntsho. The long ranger Pema Dorji eventually brought up his maiden half century (70 off 68 balls) before Kezang Nima came back for his last over to bowl him out for his third wicket. Kezang Nima went on to get his fourth wicket as Deki Phuntsho’s valuable 24 runs off 21 balls came to an end. Wangdue Radap’s set a 155 runs target in their 20 overs. In the second innings, Wangdue Radap bowlers were taken aback by openers Kinga Loday and Manish as the two added 54 for the opening partnership before Manish was caught and bowled by Yeshi Wangdi. No other bowlers seemed to trouble the two batsmen as Kinga Loday and Tarun Kumar went on to add 93 runs partnership for the second wicket. Yeshi Wangdi was the only successful bowler as he came back to bowl out Tarun Kumar for his second wicket. Kinga Loday hit an unbeaten 76 off 53 balls to take his team to the top four who will now go on to play the Eliminator Round. Kezang Nima was declared the player of the match for his figure of 4/17 in four overs.
True Warriors win a thriller
True Warriors registered their first win of the Bhutan T20 Smash 2022 edging pass Dantak by a narrow 3 runs and march forward in the tournament. Having lost their opening match to Druk Gladiators in the previously week True Warriors had to win to keep their hopes alive for the top two spot. It wasn’t the best start that True Warriors would have wanted losing Soenam Jamtsho to the third delivery of the first over to Vinay Singh. Sanjay Pradhan and Kinga Loday started to build the innings putting up 41 runs between them before Sanjay was bowled by Bhagat Singh. Kinga Loday looked good for his 41 of 32 balls before Pawan Mehta bowled him in the 12 over as the total score stood at 98 runs. Dantak’s speedster Vinay Singh came back for his second spell and got the better of Kelzang Nima who returned to the pavilion without troubling the score much. True Warrior’s Manish Giri on the other hand started to open up and play some blistering shots supported by Tarun Kumar from the other side. Manish Giri went on to score his first half century (61 of 31 balls) as True Warriors set a massive 188 runs target. Dantak’s Vinay Singh ended with best figure of 4 for 24 from his 4 overs. Dantak opening batsman Pawan Mehta looked in some mood as he started to hit some aggressive shots early on. Dantak lost their first wicket Pawan Kumar in the fourth over at the score of 36. It didn’t take long for Warrior’s as they picked up Bhagat Singh in the next over. Warrior’s medium pacer Pema Dorji got the better of Pawan Mehta bowling him out for 44 of 24 balls in the ninth over. Pema was the pick of the bowlers for the Warrior’s with figure of 1 for 14 from 4 overs. At this juncture of the game, Warriors were all over Dantak, however, William Rana and Vinay Singh had other plans as the two started to look comfortable and punish the Warrior’s fielding errors adding 67 runs fifth wicket partnership. Rana went on to score his maiden half century (66 of 51 balls) The game stood at 13 runs required of the last over. Warrior’s speedster Yueyong Phuntsho started nervously bowling a wide first ball before trapping Vinay Singh leg before wicket the next ball. Next bastman Rakesh Dhiman managed to squeeze a single from the next ball bringing Rana on strike. Set batsman Rana flicked the ball towards deep square to take Dantak to a one hit distance before Yueyong Phuntsho managed to run-out Rakesh Dhiman the next delivery that caused Rana to the non-striker end leaving the new man on strike. Dantak required five of the last ball which Yueyong managed to ball for a dot ball run-out giving True Warrior’s their first win. Manish Giri was declared the Player of the Match for his blistering batting performance.