# 2018 Everest Premier League

The 2018 Everest Premier League, also known as EPL3 or 2018 TVS EPL because of the sponsorship reason, was the third edition of the Everest Premier League, a professional men's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition in Nepal. The tournament was held from 8 December 2018 to 22 December 2018. Biratnagar Warriors were defending champions for the tournament but they were eliminated in the group stage. Lalitpur Patriots won the 2018 season and it's their first title.

## Players Release and Bidding

The players release and bidding process was held on 11 November 2018 and broadcast live on the official Facebook page of EPL in the presence of Raman Shiwakoti, chief of EPL technical committee and the manager of Nepal men's national cricket team. In the player release and bidding process, each team could release maximum of three players and they could bid for the released players as well as the unsold players and the players who did not register for 2017 EPL auction. Hari Chauhan was the most bidded player (NPR 85,000) in the process by Biratnagar Warriors. Tigers acquired Sagar Dhakal and Adil Khan. Kings XI brought in Samsaad Sheikh while Rhinos secured Shubhendu Pandey and Nandan Yadav. Gladiators did not bid and Patriots did not release any players.

## Teams and squads

The marquee players from the 2017 Everest Premier League were retained by their respective teams as a part of a three year agreement. The franchise teams are obliged to select at least three foreign players and one local player from the talent hunt program as per the Everest Premier League regulation.
| Bhairahawa Gladiators | Biratnagar Warriors | Chitwan Tigers | Kathmandu Kings XI | Lalitpur Patriots | Pokhara Rhinos |
| Sharad Vesawkar (c) Pradeep Airee Aarif Sheikh Rohit Kumar Paudel Bhuwan Karki Krishna Karki Prakash KC Anil Kharel Kushal Malla Harishankar Shah Dipesh Shrestha Bhupendra Thapa Ryan Ten Doeschate Mohammad Naveed Ravi Inder Singh Puneet Mehra | Paras Khadka (c) Karan KC Basant Regmi Anil Sah Aasif Sheikh Aakash Bista Hari Bahadur Chauhan Ramnaresh Giri Dipesh Kandel Pranit Thapa Magar Sumit Maharjan Puspa Thapa Babar Hayat Paul van Meekeren Roelof van der Merwe Smit Patel | Prithu Baskota (c) Dipendra Airee Lalit Bhandari Dilip Nath Bhim Sharki Kamal Singh Airee Shahab Alam Sagar Dhakal Aadil Khan Ishan Pandey Sandeep Sunar Aakash Thapa Paul Stirling John Simpson George Scott | Sompal Kami (c) Naresh Budhayer Siddhant Lohani Jitendra Mukhiya Sagar Pun Raju Rijal Bikram Bhusal Amar Singh Routela Samshad Sheikh Amit Shrestha Nitesh Thapa Puran Vishwakarma Subramanian Anand Rohan Mustafa Kevin O'Brien Pardeep Sahu | Gyanendra Malla (c) Sundeep Jora Sandeep Lamichhane Lalit Rajbanshi Pawan Sarraf Kushal Bhurtel Sumit Jha Narayan Joshi Yogendra Singh Karki Rashaid Khan Shankar Rana Sonu Tamang Jaykishan Kolsawala Sunny Patel Gourav Tomar | Shakti Gauchan Binod Bhandari Sushan Bhari Sunil Dhamala Rajesh Pulami Magar Saurabh Khanal Bipin Khatri Kishore Mahato Shubhendu Pandey Dev Shah Bikram Sob Nandan Yadav Kyle Coetzer (c) Sunny Bhimsaria Paul Coughlin Richard Levi |

## Points table

| Team | M | W | L | T | NR | Points | NRR |
| Lalitpur Patriots | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | +1.747 |
| Kathmandu Kings XI | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | -0.279 |
| Bhairahawa Gladiators | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | -0.370 |
| Chitwan Tigers | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -0.185 |
| Biratnagar Warriors | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -0.250 |
| Pokhara Rhinos | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.627 |
* The four top ranked teams will qualify for the playoffs
* advanced to Qualifier 1
* advanced to the Eliminator

## League matches
### Match 1

* 8 December 13:00 Scorecard
| Lalitpur Patriots 104/9 (20 overs) | v | Biratnagar Warriors 105/7 (19.5 overs) |
| Gyanendra Malla 49(52) van der Merwe 2/14 (4 overs) | | Karan KC 36(19)* Gaurav Tomar 3/10 (4 overs) |
* Warriors won by 3 wickets TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha and Sanjay Gurung Player of the match: Karan KC (Warriors)
* Patriots elected to bat first

### Match 2

* 9 December 09:00 Scorecard
| Lalitpur Patriots 143/5 (20 overs) | v | Chitwan Tigers 132/8 (20 overs) |
| Sonu Tamang 35(24)* George Scott 2/24 (3 overs) | | Dipendra Singh Airee 41(45) Sandeep Lamichhane 3/26 (4 overs) |
* Patriots won by 11 runs TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha and Ram Yadav Player of the match: Sandeep Lamichhane (Patriots)
* Patriots elected to bat first

### Match 3

* 9 December 13:00 Scorecard
| Pokhara Rhinos 215/5 (20 overs) | v | Bhairahawa Gladiators 216/6 (19.4 overs) |
| Richard Levi 79(36) Avinash Bohara 1/33 (4 overs) | | Ravi Inder Singh 125(60)* Bikram Sob 2/25 (3.4 overs) |
* Gladiators won by 4 wickets TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Sanjay Gurung and Hiralal Raut Player of the match: Ravi Inder Singh (Gladiators)
* Rhinos, elected to bat first

### Match 4

* 10 December 09:00 Scorecard
| Chitwan Tigers 160/10 (19.5 overs) | v | Kathmandu Kings XI 164/4 (18.5 overs) |
| Dipendra Singh Airee 45(40) Samshad Sheikh 3/18 (2.5 overs) | | Subramanian Anand 43(18)* Shahab Alam 2/26 (4 overs) |
* Kings XI won by 6 wickets TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha and Ram Yadav Player of the match: Subramanian Anand (Kings XI)
* Kings XI, elected to bowl first

### Match 5

* 10 December 13:00 Scorecard
| Pokhara Rhinos 166/4 (20 overs) | v | Lalitpur Patriots 171/2 (15.5 overs) |
| Richard Levi 84(39) Pawan Sarraf 3/31 (4 overs) | | Gaurav Tomar 82(41) Susan Bhari 1/26 (4 overs) |
* Patriots won by 8 wickets TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Sanjay Gurung and Hiralal Raut Player of the match: Gaurav Tomar (Patriots)
* Rhinos, elected to bat first

### Match 6

* 10 December 09:00 Scorecard
| Pokhara Rhinos 84/7 (20 overs) | v | Biratnagar Warriors 84/10 (19.3 overs) |
| Paul Coughlin 20(27) van Meekeren 3/17 (4 overs) | | Aasif Sheikh 19(13) Bipin Khatri 3/15 (4 overs) |
* Match tied (Warriors won the one-over eliminator) TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha and Hiralal Raut Player of the match: Karan KC (Warriors)
* Warriors, elected to field first

### Match 7

* 10 December 13:00 Scorecard
| Bhairahawa Gladiators 143/10 (19.3 overs) | v | Chitwan Tigers 131/9 (20 overs) |
| Ryan Ten Doeschate 35(25) George Scott 2/13 (3.3 overs) | | Paul Stirling 38(23) Ravi Inder Singh 2/23 (3 overs) |
* Gladiators won by 12 runs TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha and Hiralal Raut Player of the match: Ryan Ten Doeschate (Gladiators)
* Tigers, elected to field first

### Match 8

* 10 December 09:00 Scorecard
| Biratnagar Warriors 91/10 (18.4 overs) | v | Bhairahawa Gladiators 92/6 (19.4 overs) |
| van der Merwe 25(29) Mohammad Naveed 4/14 (4 overs) | | Ryan Ten Doeschate 20(33) van der Merwe 2/10 (4 overs) |
* Gladiators won by 4 wickets TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Sanjay Gurung and Hiralal Raut Player of the match: Mohammad Naveed (Gladiators)
* Gladiators, elected to field first

## Statistics

Most runs :
| Player | Team | Runs |
| Ravi Inder Singh | Bhairahawa Gladiators | 337 |
| Dipendra Singh Airee | Chitwan Tigers | 231 |
| Gaurav Tomar | Lalitpur Patriots | 229 |
| Richard Levi | Pokhara Rhinos | 204 |
| Jaiskishan Kolsawala | Lalitpur Patriots | 188 |
* Source: ESPNcricinfo, 22 December 2018
Most wickets :
| Player | Team | Wickets |
| Mohammad Naveed | Bhairahawa Gladiators | 12 |
| Pawan Sarraf | Lalitpur Patriots | 11 |
| Pardeep Sahu | Kathmandu Kings XI | 10 |
| Sunny Patel | Lalitpur Patriots | 10 |
| Lalit Bhandari | Chitwan Tigers | 10 |
* Source: ESPNcricinfo, 22 December 2018