Today was Match 23 of the 2025 Nepal Premier league taking place at Kirtipur. It’s been a well fought season so far and the excitement was on display in the first game of the day’s double header as well, where Kathmandu Gorkhas took on Pokhara Avengers, and the former had the task of defending their par total of 165 in their 20 overs.
The chase was a pretty good one thanks to overseas players Dhananjaya Lakshan from Sri Lanka and Rishi Dhawan from India. Dhawan scored a fifty but they left it too late in the chase as they had to get 20 runs from the final over, which was being delivered by left-arm spinner, Shahab Alam, who already had 2 wickets in his 2 overs prior to the final one.
NPL 2025 – Shahab Alam picks hat-trick!
The spinner picked up Dhawan on the first ball of the over, as he tried to launch one out of the ground, but was caught by Milind Kumar on the boundary. Following him was Bipin Khatri, stumped off the second ball of the over. On the third ball, Aakash Chand also holed out to the same fielder from USA, Milind Kumar.
First Hat-trick of NPL. 3 wickets in 3 balls for Shahab Alam.#NPLSeason2 pic.twitter.com/bNcjrWitio
— Samraat Maharjan (@MaharjanSamraat) December 4, 2025
There it was, as Shahab Alam went into the NPL history books, as the first person to bag a hat-trick in this tournament. With the ha-trick wicket, he also picked up his maiden 5-fer in the tournament and he wasn’t even satisfied there; on the final ball of the game, he dismissed Sagar Dhakal as well, finishing with 4 in the over and 6 wickets in his 4-overs spell.
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He ended with impressive figures of 6/25 which was the best by any bowler in the NPL Season 2 so far. However, he still wasn’t good enough to get the Man of the Match award, which went to Bhim Sharki who scored a quickfire 55 in 23 deliveries for Kathmandu in their batting effort, allowing them to get to a respectable total on the board.
There are many overseas pros in the tournament, coming with plenty of experience in international cricket and bigger T20 franchise leagues. Yet, it’s good to see that the top bowlers of NPL Season 2 so far are locals – Sandeep Lamichhane and Karan KC. Further, the first hat-trick was also picked up by a Nepali bowler in Shahab Alam.
We hope that these small milestones help grow the sport of cricket in Nepal and then, these kind of tournaments will have served their purpose. For similar cricketing news from Nepal and around the world, remember to always stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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