Bhairahawa Gladiators beat Lalitpur Patriots, to face Biratnagar Warriors in title showdown KATHMANDU:Bhairahawa Gladiators will meet Biratnagar Warriors in the title showdown after beating Lalitpur Patriots by three wickets in second qualifier match of the TVS Everest Premier League played at the TU Cricket Stadium, on Thursday. Earlier, Biratnagar Warriors had thrashed Bhairahawa Gladiators by eight wickets and 18 ball to spare in eliminator match. After winning the toss, Gladiators invited the Patriots to take the first strike, to exploit early seam and movement off the pitch. Patriots posted 132/6 in their 20 overs which Gladiators achieved it by 3 wickets and 3 ball to spare. Patriots made a solid start as the opening batsmen combined for 51 runs before Shankar Rana departed for 12 runs before being run out in the 9.1 overs. Patriots couldn't capitalise on the soild foundation laid by the openers as they lost wickets at regular interval to post a challaning total against a good batting outfit. Skipper Malla struggled with the bat as he made 20 runs off 24 balls with a single hit to a fence. Indian recruit Jaykishan Kolsawala top scored with 42 runs off 37 balls that included five fours and two towering sixes. Sunney Patel contributed 24 runs off 18 balls that included two fours and a six. Late blitz from the the Dipesh Bhandari's 22 runs off just 9 balls with two fours and two sixes helped Patriots to post a decent total on the board. Punit Mishra snared two wickets while Aarif Sheikh, Harishankar Shah and Bhuvan Karki chipped in with a wicket each. In reply, Gladiators made a decent start. They lost the first wicket in the form of Rahul Yadav as he made painstaking nine runs off 19 balls with a single hit to the fence. Opening batsman Pratham Salunke, who top scored with 32 runs, departed on the 6.6 overs with just 44 runs on the board. He hit three fours and three sixes. Captain Vesawkar did not last long either he also failed cheaply for 9 runs. At one stage Gladiators were reeling at 74/4 as Aarif Sheikh was trapped leg before wicket by Lalit Naryan Rajbanshi. Rohit Kumar Paudel and Punit Mishra shared 27 runs for the sixth wicket and revived the hopes Gladiators beating the Patriots to reach the final. Skipper Gyanendra Malla handed ball to Indian recruit Dipesh Bhandari to defend 13 runs off the last over, final showdown at stake with Biratnagar Warriors. Rohit Paudel who was batting on 15 runs off 14 balls, smacked first ball over the cow corner for a massive six, still needing seven runs off five balls. Paudel hit another six off the next delivery and took a single to take him team home. Paudel was awarded man of the match trophy and received Rs 10, 000. Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi was pick of the bowler with 4-1-9-2. Pawan Sarraf took two wickets, Sandeep Lamichhane and Rashaid Khan bagged a wicket each. The final of the TVS Everest Premier League will be played on Saturday at the TU Cricket Stadium, Kirtipur. The winner of the tournament will collected Rs 2.1 million.