18 Chait, Kathmandu. One of the strongest teams in domestic cricket is the Armed Police Force (APF) club. In this team, captain Rohit Kumar Paudel and players who have played for the national team are dominant. However, the said team suffered back-to-back defeats in the ongoing Prime Minister’s (PM) Cup ODI cricket.

APF was stunned by Lumbini Pradesh in the match at Birgunj on Wednesday. Chasing the target of 125 runs given by APF, Lumbini was stopped at 124 runs and the match reached the super over.

Chasing the target of 15 runs given by Lumbini in the Super Over, APF managed to score only 6 runs. With the strength of 19-year-old young cricketer Santosh Yadav, the captain of the national team along with Lokesh Bam and Sandeep Zora became innocent.

Although the national team is full of players, APF has not been able to maintain a rhythm in the ongoing PM Cup. In the first match, they got off to a good start by winning by 71 runs against Bagmati Province. However, after that APF is not in rhythm. In the second match, Nepal Police Club was defeated by a wide margin of 185 runs. The third match against Tribhuvan Army Club was canceled due to rain and in the fourth and fifth matches, APF lost to two teams from the province.

Domestic cricket is always dominated by the departmental team. In most of the competitions, only three departments have won the title. Due to the dominance of the players who are playing from the national team, the provincial teams cannot compete with the departmental teams.

However, the APF has become untouchable with one team after another from the state. After losing by 43 runs against Gandaki Pradesh, APF lost to Lumbini in the Super Over.

Along with Poudel, APF has openers Asif Sheikh, Sandeep Zora, Lokesh Bam, Nandan Yadav, Abhinas Bohra and Kamal Singh Airi who have played for the national team. However, APF is also losing against the provincial team. Most of the players have not been able to catch the rhythm till 5 games. Opener Asif scored a century in the first match. Then he also flopped. He has not been able to score 21 in any other match.

Captain Rohit’s bat has not been able to move in all 5 matches. Rohit has scored only 49 runs in 5 matches. He has taken 7 wickets in bowling. The condition of Sandeep Zora and Lokesh is also similar. Sandeep scored a half century in the first match. Then he could not walk. Lokesh has not been able to play in any game. Sandeep has scored 112 runs from 5 matches and Lokesh has scored 60 runs.

Even in bowling, Nandan, who entered the APF this season, has not got much opportunity. He got the opportunity in 2 matches and scored 49 runs with 2 wickets. Abhinas has taken 3 wickets in 3 matches. Even Kamal has not been able to do anything special. He has taken only 4 wickets from 5 matches. He has scored 66 runs in batting. Young ballad duo Yuvraj Khatri and Abhishesh Gautam have not been able to do miracles either.

Up to 5 matches, Yuvraj has taken 5 wickets and Abhishesh 6 wickets. Sumit Maharjan, Bhuvan Karki and Deepak Bohra are also not in a good rhythm. APF is suffering one defeat after another due to the inability of any player to perform meaningfully.

Declining performance of APF

APF’s performance in the Prime Minister’s (PM) Cup is declining. It can be seen that the performance of APF is deteriorating after Rohit became the captain of APF. Rohit captained APF from the 2024 edition. In that season, APF was fifth for the first time. APF came third in the last edition. APF is not off to a good start in this edition as well.

APF won the title in 2022 by defeating Army in the final. Similarly, they were eliminated from the semi-finals in 2019 when they lost with Army in 2021. After winning the title in 2018, APF was eliminated from the semi-finals in 2017.

Gyanendra Malla captained the PM Cup in 2017, Vasantha Regmi in 2018 and 19. Sharad captained APF in 2021 and 22. Since then, Rohit has been captaining APF.