Biratnagar vs Pokhara Head to Head: Level at 1-1

Biratnagar against Pokhara has already given the NPL its first Super Over and its biggest one-sided win between the two sides. Pokhara won the Season 1 meeting in a Super Over after a tied game, Biratnagar answered in Season 2 with a 53-run rout built on a 220 total, and the head to head stands level at one win each. Both sides are still winless in Season 3, which makes their next meeting (Match 22 on 12 November) a game neither can afford to lose.

Two meetings, two very different wins

Pokhara won the first meeting in the most dramatic way the league has seen. On 12 December 2024, Biratnagar won the toss and batted first, scoring 139 for 7, and Pokhara matched them exactly at 139 for 6, with Raymon Reifer hitting a six off the last ball to tie the game. In the Super Over, Reifer faced Sandeep Lamichhane and hit two sixes, a four and two singles for 18 runs, while Biratnagar managed only five in reply — Pokhara won by 13 runs, their first victory in NPL history.

On 18 November 2025, Pokhara won the toss and chose to bowl, and Biratnagar posted 220 for 6 (the highest NPL total at that point) behind a 132-run stand between Lokesh Bam, who scored 72 off 48 balls and took player of the match, and Martin Guptill. Pokhara were bowled out for 167 in 18.5 overs, with only captain Kushal Bhurtel’s 59 off 31 balls and Adam Rossington’s 39 off 21 offering resistance, and Biratnagar won by 53 runs.

Two winless sides meet in Season 3

Season 3 has been unkind to both sides so far. Biratnagar have lost both their matches — by eight runs to Chitwan and by four wickets to Karnali, despite Lokesh Bam’s 87 in the second game, the highest individual score of the season after six matches. Pokhara have played once and lost, beaten by six wickets by Sudurpaschim despite Shakib Al Hasan’s only appearance of the season so far.

Sandeep Lamichhane’s Biratnagar bowling has leaked runs in both defeats (one wicket from seven and a half overs at an economy of 7.73), while Bhurtel’s Pokhara lost their opener from a winning position, with Bhurtel himself bowling the final over as captain. Both captains carry the weight of winless starts into Match 22, and both coaches, Dhammika Prasad for Biratnagar and Ajantha Mendis for Pokhara, face the same question: which side finds its first win first.

Match 22 decides the lead

Unlike the rivalries already settled this season, Biratnagar against Pokhara still has a league meeting to play. Match 22 on 12 November at TU Ground will break the one-win-each tie, and the loser risks falling further behind the playoff race with only a handful of league matches left afterwards. Biratnagar’s remaining schedule after Match 22 includes Lumbini on 14 November, while Pokhara close against Kathmandu on 15 November.

If the meeting follows the pattern of the first two, fans should expect extremes rather than a routine game — either a tie or a rout, with Bam and Bhurtel, the two captains’ batting, at the centre of it. Biratnagar’s 220 in the last meeting remains the benchmark total between the sides, and Pokhara’s Super Over win remains the benchmark finish.