The 2025 Nepal Premier League, also known as Siddhartha Bank NPL 2025 for sponsorship reasons, was the second season of the Nepal Premier League (NPL), a franchise Twenty20 cricket league in Nepal. The tournament featured eight teams competing in 32 matches from 17 November to 13 December 2025.
The defending champions Janakpur Bolts were eliminated in the league stage. In the final, Lumbini Lions defeated Sudurpaschim Royals by 6 wickets to win their maiden title. Adam Rossington (Pokhara Avengers) was the highest run-scorer in the tournament with 323 runs. Sandeep Lamichhane (Biratnagar Kings), along with Sher Malla (Lumbini Lions) and Abinash Bohara (Sudurpaschim Royals), picked up 17 wickets each, making them joint top wicket-takers. Ruben Trumpelmann of the Lumbini Lions was named the Player of the series.
Background The Nepal Premier League (NPL) is a men's T20 franchise cricket league organized by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN). It was established in 2024, with its inaugural season held in the same year. The league features eight city- or province-based franchises competing in a round-robin stage followed by the playoffs. Janakpur Bolts won the maiden title, defeating Sudurpaschim Royals in the final.
Teams Team Captain Biratnagar Kings Sandeep Lamichhane Dhammika Prasad Chitwan Rhinos Kushal Malla Kalam Ali Janakpur Bolts Wayne Parnell Shivnarine Chanderpaul Karnali Yaks Sompal Kami Gyanendra Malla Kathmandu Gorkhas Karan KC Monty Desai Lumbini Lions Rohit Paudel Tinu Yohannan Pokhara Avengers Kushal Bhurtel Rajiv Kumar Sudurpaschim Royals Dipendra Singh Airee Jagat Tamata
Auction and personnel changes The franchises were required to submit their retention lists before 5 July 2025, and a total of 51 players were retained ahead of the auction. The auction was held on 9 August 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal. A total of 458 players registered for the auction, of which 150 players were shortlisted and 37 were sold.
Dev Khanal, Arjun Saud, Pawan Sarraf and Mohammad Aadil Alam became the most expensive players in the auction, bought at the price of . Mohammad Aadil Alam had been upon by all eight franchises.
Squads
The player auction took place on 9 August 2025.
Biratnagar Kings Chitwan Rhinos Janakpur Bolts Karnali Yaks Sandeep Lamichhane (c) Basir Ahamad Lokesh Bam (wk) Subash Bhandari Naren Bhatta Marchant de Lange Faf du Plessis Martin Guptill Pratish GC Sam Heazlett Shehan Jayasuriya Shrawan Kisku George Munsey Ayush Neupane Sahil Patel (wk) Shankar Rana Shubham Ranjane Surya Tamang Kushal Malla (c) Bipin Acharya Kamal Singh Airee Deepak Bohara Ravi Bopara Rijan Dhakal Saugat Dhakal Gautam KC Dev Khanal Ranjeet Kumar Dawid Malan Alpesh Ramjani Amar Rautela Bipin Rawal (wk) Arjun Saud (wk) George Scrimshaw Sohail Tanvir Saif Zaib Wayne Parnell (c) Bikash Aagri Sachin Bhatta Sangeeth Cooray Shubh Kansakar Sanjay Krishnamurthi Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton Aaditya Mahata Kishore Mahato Lahiru Milantha (wk) Lalit Rajbanshi Maaz Sadaqat Lahiru Samarakoon Anil Sah (wk) Aasif Sheikh (wk) Rupesh Singh Tul Bahadur Thapa Mayan Yadav Pappu Yadav Sompal Kami (c) Will Bosisto Deepak Dumre (wk) Arjun Gharti (wk) Gulshan Jha Yuvraj Khatri Jaykishan Kolsawala (wk) Max O'Dowd Priyank Panchal Dipendra Rawat Pawan Sarraf Bipin Sharma Imran Sheikh Unish Thakuri Manish Thapa (wk) Mark Watt Nandan Yadav Najibullah Zadran Kathmandu Gorkhas Lumbini Lions Pokhara Avengers Sudurpaschim Royals Karan KC (c) Mohammad Aadil Alam Shahab Alam Ben Charlesworth Sonu Devkota Gerhard Erasmus Dipesh Kandel Milind Kumar Rashid Khan Uttam Magar (wk) Sunny Patel Bhim Sharki John Simpson (wk) Natarjan Shah Pratik Shrestha Aakash Tripathi Tul B Thapa Ricardo Vasconcelos (wk) Santosh Yadav Rohit Paudel (c) Dinesh Adhikari Sameer Ali (wk) Tilak Bhandari Niroshan Dickwella Thomas Draca Abhishesh Gautam Durgesh Gupta Sundeep Jora Aadil Khan (wk) Sumit Maharjan Sher Malla Gulbadin Naib Dilip Nath (wk) Bishal Patel D'Arcy Short JJ Smit Movin Subasingha Ruben Trumpelmann Bibek Yadav Kushal Bhurtel (c) Dawood Ahmadzai Aakash Chand Rohit Chand Sandeep Chhetri Rishi Dhawan Trit Raj Das Dan Douthwaite Sagar Dhakal Dinesh Kharel Bipin Khatri Arjun Kumal (wk) Dhananjaya Lakshan Arjun Singh Nahal James Neesham Krishna Poudel Jason Roy Adam Rossington (wk) Matthew Taylor Kiran Thagunna Abhisekh Tiwari Sumeet Verma Dipendra Singh Airee (c) Mukhtar Ahmed Abinash Bohara Dipak Bohara (wk) Milan Bohara Binod Bhandari (wk) Josh Brown Hemant Dhami Sheldon Jackson Scott Kuggeleijn Chris Lynn Hikmat Mahar Dhruv Parashar Ishan Pandey Tek Rawat (wk) Naren Saud Aarif Sheikh Harmeet Singh Dipendra Thapa (wk)
Bibek Yadav was replaced by Sumit Maharjan in Lumbini Lions's squad due to injury.
Natarjan Shah was replaced by Sonu Devkota in Kathmandu Gorkhas's squad due to groin injury.
Anil Sah was removed from captain of Janakpur Bolts mid-season & Wayne Parnell was appointed as captain.
Venue
All matches were played at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, Kathmandu.
Teams and standings Points table
Match summary
League stage The fixture was released on 10 November 2025.
Playoffs
Bracket
Qualifier 1
Eliminator
Qualifier 2
Final
The 2025 Nepal Premier League final was played on 13 December 2025 at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. It was the final match of the second season of the Nepal Premier League. Lumbini Lions defeated Sudurpaschim Royals by six wickets to win their maiden Nepal Premier League title.
Sudurpaschim Royals qualified for the final after finishing at the top of the league stage and winning Qualifier 1. Lumbini Lions reached the final after winning Qualifier 2.
After winning the toss, Sudurpaschim Royals elected to bat first but were bowled out for 85 runs in 19.1 overs. Lumbini Lions chased the target comfortably, reaching 86 runs for the loss of four wickets in just 9 overs. Ruben Trumpelmann was named the player of the match for his decisive bowling performance.
Road to the final Sudurpaschim Royals had a successful league stage with only 1 loss against Biratnagar Kings. They won the rest 6 matches garnering a total of 12 points finishing atop the league table. They defeated Biratnagar Kings in Qualifier 1 to gain their place in the Final.
Lumbini Lions finished fourth in the league table winning 4 games and losing 3 games against Sudurpaschim Royals, Karnali Yaks and kathmandu Gorkhas to end with a total of 8 points. Lumbini Lions began the tournament with three consecutive losses but recovered with three straight league-stage wins to reach the playoffs. They then maintained their momentum by winning the Eliminator, Qualifier 2, and the final.
vsLeague StageOpponentScorecardResultPointsMatch No.OpponentScorecardResultPointsKathmandu Gorkhas19 November 2025Won2 1Chitwan Rhinos20 November 2025Won2Pokhara Avengers21 November 2025Won4 2Karnali Yaks22 November 2025Lost2Karnali Yaks24 November 2025Won6 3Kathmandu Gorkhas25 November 2025Lost2Lumbini Lions27 November 2025Won8 4Sudurpaschim Royals27 November 2025Lost2Janakpur Bolts29 November 2025Won10 5Pokhara Avengers29 November 2025Won4Chitwan Rhinos4 December 2025Won12 6Biratnagar Kings3 December 2025Won6Biratnagar Kings6 December 2025Lost12 7Janakpur Bolts5 December 2025Won8Playoff stageOpponentScorecardResultOpponentScorecardResultBiratnagar Kings9 December 2025Won Kathmandu Gorkhas10 December 2025Won Qualified for the finals Biratnagar Kings11 December 2025Won 2025 Nepal Premier League final
Match officials On-field umpires: Lyndon Hannibal (SL) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Third umpire: Prageeth Rambukwella (SL) Reserve umpire: Ram Pandey (Nep) Match referee: Manu Nayyar (Ind) Toss: Sudurpaschim Royals won the toss and elected to bat.
Summary
Sudurpaschim Royals innings Sudurpaschim Royals (SR) won the toss and elected to bat, but their innings was largely defined by the struggle of their top order. Ishan Pandey was the standout performer and the best batter for the side, anchoring the innings with a gritty 33 runs off 51 balls. While the rest of the team faltered around him, Pandey's patience provided the only stability in an otherwise collapsing batting lineup, though his strike rate remained low due to the constant fall of wickets at the other end.
The rest of the batting unit struggled to find any momentum against the Lions' disciplined pace and spin. Captain Dipendra Singh Airee managed to score 13 runs before his dismissal, while Harmeet Singh and Scott Kuggeleijn were the only other players to reach double figures, contributing 10 runs each. The remaining batters, including Deepak Bohara, Puneet Mehra, and the lower order, failed to resist, with several falling for ducks or single-digit scores, leading to a total of 85 runs in 19.1 overs.
The Lumbini Lions' bowling attack was led by a masterful performance from captain Rohit Paudel, who turned the game with a historic hat-trick, finishing with figures of 3 wickets for just 12 runs. He was brilliantly supported by Scottish international Ruben Trumpelmann, who delivered one of the most economical spells in NPL history, taking 3 wickets for a mere 3 runs in 3.1 overs. Sher Malla also dismantled the lower order, claiming 3 wickets for 18 runs, as the Lions' bowlers combined to concede only 5 extras throughout the innings.
Lumbini Lions innings Chasing a target of 86, the Lumbini Lions (LL) innings was dominated by the explosive batting of Dinesh Adhikari, who was the best batter of the chase. Adhikari demoralized the Royals' defense in the very first over, hitting four sixes against Dipendra Singh Airee to collect 27 runs. He played a match-winning cameo of 42 runs off only 13 balls, striking at over 300, which ensured that the required run rate remained negligible for the remainder of the match.
The middle order followed Adhikari's aggressive lead to finish the game quickly. Opener D'Arcy Short scored a brisk 14 runs off 11 balls before being caught, while captain Rohit Paudel contributed a steady 16 runs off 12 balls, including two fours and a towering six. Wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella remained not out on 11 runs, steering the team past the finish line in just 9.0 overs. Despite losing 4 wickets in the pursuit of quick runs, the Lions' batters stayed ahead of the game at every stage.
The Sudurpaschim Royals' bowling attack struggled to contain the early onslaught, though Hemant Dhami emerged as their most effective bowler, taking 2 wickets for 22 runs in his 2-over spell. Abinash Bohara managed to pick up 1 wicket while conceding 18 runs, and captain Dipendra Singh Airee claimed 1 wicket for 31 runs after his expensive opening over. Ultimately, the bowlers had too few runs to defend, as the Lions reached 89/4 to secure a 6-wicket victory and the 2025 NPL title.
Scorecard Source: ESPNcricinfo
1st innings
|colspan="4"| Extras 4 (lb 1, w 3) Total 85 (19.1 overs) |2 |4 | 4.43 RR
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Binod Bhandari, 0.6 ov), 2-7 (Sheldon Jackson, 2.3 ov), 3-19 (Aarif Sheikh, 4.3 ov), 4-44 (Dipendra Singh Airee, 10.4 ov), 5-44 (Deepak Bohara, 10.5 ov), 6-44 (Puneet Mehra, 10.6 ov), 7-62 (Harmeet Singh, 14.4 ov), 8-71 (Ishan Pandey, 16.3 ov), 9-84 (Scott Kuggeleijn, 18.3 ov), 10-85 (Abinash Bohara, 19.1 ov)
2nd innings
|colspan="4"| Extras 2 (lb 1, w 1) Total 86/4 (9 overs) |7 |6 | 9.55 RR
Fall of wickets: 1-58 (D'Arcy Short, 4.1 ov), 2-59 (Dinesh Adhikari, 4.3 ov), 3-84 (Rohit Paudel, 7.5 ov), 4-85 (Sundeep Jora, 8.5 ov)
Statistics Team Statistics