Player of the Match Karuna Bhandari. ACC Photo.
Nepal qualified for the semifinal of the ACC Women’s Twenty20 Championship defeating hosts Kuwait by 47 runs at KEC.
Nepal scored 103/4 in 20 overs after being invited to bat first and restricted Kuwait for 56/9 for an easy victory.
Chasing a good total, Kuwait batswomen struggled to get runs. After Sabreen Zaki was out early in second over to captain Nary Thapa, Khansa Irfan (8) and captain Siobhan Gomez (12) partnered 20 runs in 36 balls for second wickets but the pace made it hard for them to go for victory.
On the 10th over, Karuna Bhandari claimed three wickets in four balls – that of topscorer Gomez, Afia Khan(4) and Varshini Suresh to make it 36/5 half-way-through.
Player of the match Karuna took another, while Sarita Magar and Rashmi Sharma also claimed one wicket each to complete the formalities from then on.
Earlier, Sita Rana topscored with 22 and Rashmi got 20 as Nepal reached 103/4 in 20 overs. Kuwait gave away too many extras as well, 31 in total including 24 wides and 5 noballs.
Nary Thapa remained unbeaten on 10 and Sarita got 8 in Nepal’s total. Zaki, Gomez, Anisha D’Silva and Maryam Omar each grabbed wicket for Kuwait.
Nepal will play next against Malaysia at Hubara ground on February 21.
Presentation of Player of the Match Award. ACC Video.