Captain Rohit Paudel completed a hat-trick in the final to help the Lumbini Lions easily beat the Sudur Paschim Royals and win NPL 2025.
Paudel hat-trick derails Royals
The Sudur Paschim Royals, playing in their second consecutive final, were bowled out for a mere 85 in the final after Paudel won the toss and opted to field at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur.
Ruben Trumpelmann (3-3) and Sher Malla (3-18) struck three early blows, but Ishan Pandey (33 in 51 balls) and captain Dipendra Singh Airee (13 in 20) added 25 to take them to 44-3 in the 11th over.
Then Airee tried to clear long-on, and Trumpelmann took an excellent catch diving forward. Dipak Bohara slog-swept the next ball, and Sundeep Jora back-pedalled and fell backwards but held on to the ball. Puneet Mehra missed the line of the next ball and was trapped leg-before to give Paudel the hat-trick.
Harmeet Singh and Scott Kuggeleijn scored 10 runs apiece, but their efforts were not enough as SPR folded in 19.1 overs.
The Lumbini Lions chase was set up by opener Dinesh Adhikari, who smashed five sixes in 13 balls to score 42, taking any contest out of the game. Hemant Dhami (2-9) removed both openers (D’Arcy Short and Adhikari) in his only over. Two more wickets fell on 84 and 85, but none of that was going to be enough.
LL took only nine overs to chase down the total. SPR finished runners-up for the second consecutive season (they had lost to the Janakpur Bolts in 2024). Trumpelmann was named the Player of the Match as well as the Player of the Tournament: he finished with 15 wickets at 14.93 while going at 6.72 an over.
