Almora. The ongoing Victoria Premier League-2025 at Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Sports Stadium witnessed a nail-biting contest in its final league match between Gurudabaz Lions and Almora Challengers. In a high-scoring encounter, Almora Challengers secured a memorable 6-wicket victory.
Winning the toss, Gurudabaz Lions elected to bat first and posted a formidable total of 221 runs for 8 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Chasing the target, Almora Challengers displayed aggressive batting and successfully reached 222 runs in 18.5 overs with 6 wickets down, sealing the win.
The highlight of the match was Manoj Bisht, the star all-rounder of Almora Challengers, who was named Man of the Match. With the ball, he took 2 wickets conceding 52 runs in 3 overs, and with the bat, he played a blistering unbeaten knock of 61 runs off just 26 balls, guiding his team to victory.
After the completion of 28 league matches, the top four teams on the points table are:
1. Almora Challengers
2. Victoria
3. Gurudabaz Lions
4. Shiv Shakti
The playoffs will begin on September 19, 2025. The first qualifier will be played between Almora Challengers and Victoria, where the winner will directly advance to the final. The losing team will get another chance and face the winner of the Eliminator-1 (to be played between Gurudabaz Lions and Shiv Shakti). The ultimate final match will take place on September 21, 2025 (Sunday).
The match officials included umpires Satyendra Kumar Singh and Shamshad Alvi, scorers Mayank and Abhay, with Anil Tamta as the announcer and Kishan Lal as groundsman.
Present on the occasion were Victoria Club President Manoj Singh Pawar, Secretary Jagdish Chauhan, Vice President Lalit Kanwal, Treasurer Rohit Bhatt, along with Gaurav Kumar, Deep Chandra Joshi, Pappu Joshi, Anil Kanwal, Suraj Parihar, Narendra Bagadwal, Abid Ali, Sanjay Verma, Sangam Pandey, Prakash Joshi, Madan Rawat, Shankar Joshi, Rajendra Rana, Atul Verma, Ujjwal Joshi, and others.
