Nepal began their quest for the title of U-15 Asia Cup with a crushing nine-wicket victory over Qatar in the only league match at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium here in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates today and qualfied for the April 19 quarterfinal as the group leader.
Nepal bowled out Qatar for 68 runs in 29.1 overs before surpassing the lowly target in 13.3 overs losing only one wicket.
As Afghanistan and Iran, the other two team of Group D have pulled out due to visa problem, both Nepal and Qatar have qualified for the quarterfinals. Nepal will meet the Group B runners-up which will be one from Hong Kong, Oman and Bahrain.
Opener Dipen Shrestha scored unbeaten 32 runs in 41 balls with three fours while Gyanendra Malla hit 17 off 14 deliveries. Gyanendra hit four boundaries. Anil Mandal got 12 off 27 balls with a four.
“Boys played very well today,” coach Roy Dias said. “But I had wanted to win the toss and bat first.”
Earlier, Qatari batsmen reeled under tight bowling from openers Amrit Bhattarai and Chandra Saud. Amrit started the downfall hitting the middle-stump of opener ZUhaib in the third over. Amrit claimed one more wicekt in his 8 overs giving away only 12 runs while Chandra got one. Other seamer Sharad Pokharel took two more.
But the pick of the bowlers was left-arm spinner Angel Acharya, who took three last wickets in his 5.2 overs giving only three runs, to claim man of the match award.
“The team spirit is very high and they performed well in all three departments today,” Assistant manger Pradeep Karki said.
Binod Pandey wrote this report.