A record breaking eight-wicket haul by Mehaboob Alam guided Nepal to a comfortable 116-run win over Maldives in the Emerging Nation’s Cricket tournament played at the Tribhuvan University cricket ground on Friday.
The Biratnagar allrounder broke the bowling record set by his teammate Dipendra Chaudhary, who picked up 6-46 in the second ACC Trophy 1998 against United Arab Emirates. Alam took eight wickets in his full quota of 10 overs conceding 23 runs.
Nepal won the toss and elected to bat first. Thanks to Paresh Lohani’s marathon innings, which saw the opening batsman scoring 80 runs, Nepal compiled moderate 173 runs in 40.2 overs before being bundled out. Alam’s devastating bowling helped Nepal to wrap up Maldives innings in just 20.1 overs in which they scored 57 runs.
Nepali toporder batting failed to click in time as at one stage they were reeling at 50-4 in 14 overs. Lohani rescued the team somehow playing some watchful knocks. The Maldives fielding also favored Lohani as he was dropped thrice and also survived a run out chance in the first over of Nepali innings.
“I am not satisfied the way our batsmen batted,” fumed coach Roy Dias who rejected about complacency from Nepali players in the match. “Actually we are playing a big match after eight months gap so these things happen in cricket. Hopefully, Manoj (Katuwal) supported well to Lohani for the eighth wicket which turned the table,” Dias added.
Dias also hinted that the best 11 would play Nepal’s second match of the tournament against Bhutan saying, “This is an international tournament and each and every match is important for us.”
Lohani played a patience knock of 80 run off 103 balls, which featured nine perfectly timed boundaries. Big hitting Mehaboob Alam, Bardan Chalise, Dipendra Chaudhary, Shakti Gauchan, Paras Luniya, Binod Das and skipper Raju Khadka departed cheaply. Katuwal, provided a good support to Lohani as they added 42 useful runs for the eighth wicket.
Katuwal chipped in 17 runs off 34 featuring two boundaries before leg-spinner Moosa Kaleem trapped him leg before. In the very next over Lohani marathon innings also came to an end when right-arm pacer A Faiz clean bowled him. Rajkumar Pradhan was the last man out as Kaleem took a spectacular catch in his own bowl.
“Our bowlers did their task reasonably well but the eighth wicket stand of Nepal took the match away from us,” said Maldives coach Faiz Samad after the match. “There were few dubious decisions too but Alam bowled superbly today,” Samad appreciated man of the match Mehaboob Alam, who sent three Maldives batsmen to the pavilion leg before the wicket.
Maldives batsmen looked very uncomfortable against Alam in their run-chase as the left-arm quick Alam claimed the wicket of Ali Azim and Abdulla Riza in his first over. He also bowled Ahemad Hussain in his next over. Binod Das, who was little bit expensive after I Nadeem gathered 14 runs off his sixth over including a sixer and two fours, picked up a wicket of Ahmad N Nazir. Nadeem was the only Maldives batsman reaching double figure mark as he made 26 off just 28 balls. Shakti Gauchan packed Maldives innings after he bowled last man M Habeeb in his third over.
Nepal will take on Bhutan in its last league match at the same ground on Saturday.