Nepal team celebrates the fall of ninth UAE wicket. Photo by Bikash Karki/NepalCricket.com
On what would be considered as a historical day for the country’s cricket, Nepal achieved a landmark 172-run victory against the best non-Test playing Asian nation United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the TU Cricket Ground.
Nepal bowled out UAE for 76 – its lowest ever total in the three-day matches with man of the match Binod Das taking five wickets. Earlier, Nepal declared the second innings at 125/6 setting a victory target of 249 runs for UAE.
However, the win wasn’t enough to take Nepal to the semifinals of the ICC InterContinental Cup as UAE has half-a-point more. At the conclusion of the event’s matches, UAE has 41 points, Nepal 40.1 and Hong Kong 18. The match also serves as a tie of the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament.
“We are very happy to beat the top team in our circle,” captain Binod Das said. “We avenged our last defeat when we lost in two days.” Coach Roy Dias too was upbeat. “Beating UAE is very important,” coach Roy Dias said. “We have never beaten their senior team in any game and this is a crown in my career with Nepal.”
Nepal resumed the second innings at 45/2 after lunch as the start was delayed due to overnight rainfall. Kaniska Chaugai and Shakti Gauchan played sensibly taking Nepal to 97 but were both out on that score. Kaniska who was dropped at slip on 29 went on to make 48 but could not complete his half-century giving a simple return catch to Rizwan Latif.
Shakti too lost his cool two balls later and was caught behind by Mohammad Taskeen as he was tempted by a wide Zahid Shah delivery. He made 26. First innings’ hero Sarad made 12 before giving a return catch to Latif as Nepal declared after reaching 125 – a declaration that many thought should have come a bit earlier.
“We played on a safer side because we didn’t want to lose outright,” Binod said defending the decision. “The early declaration could have given them hopes of winning and would have been an easy target,” Dias said.
UAE never looked like chasing a victory, it was trying to either draw the match or score 75 runs which would take it to the semifinals of the ICC InterContinental Cup. It slumped down to 69/9 after Binod’s heroics with support from his pacers and Nepal looked to be on the way to Namibia. But No 10 Shah hit six off Shakti Gauchan and raised his bat for taking his team to semifinals.
“For all three days, Nepal played really well,” an angry UAE coach Syed Abid Ali said. “We played negatively, and lost. We are lucky to reach the semifinals but we were playing like a novice team.” “Nepal has done really well, and I think you will go a lot further,” Ali added.
Crown Prince Paras watched the proceedings for about an hour and later phoned the security persons to convey his congratulations to the Nepali team.