Nepal entered the semifinal of the U-17 Asia Cup beating hosts Malaysia by 9 runs in a nail-biting finish at Aman Club today.
Malaysia won the toss and elected to field first. Nepal found runs hard to get and managed a total of 141/6 in allotted 45 overs. Captain Gyanendra Malla batting at number four topscored with 42 runs while Nirmal Simangaida (27*), Sunam Gautam (19) and Rajan Khadgi (14) also reached the double figures.
Malaysia’s Mohd Kasman Kaderi was the pick of the bowlers taking 3 wickets for 29 while Aminuddin Ramly, Mohd Shahrulnizam and Mohd Elmi Abdul Rahman claimed a wicket each.
In reply, Malaysia lost wickets at regular intervals. Skipper Faris Almas Lee top scored with 24 runs while Mohd Kasman Mohd Kaderi chipped in with 23 runs. Man of the match Govinda Karki took 4 wickets giving away only 18 runs while Sushant Thapa returned with 3/18. Nirmal and Sunam took a wicket each.
Nepal will meet Kuwait at the Selangor Turf Club Ground in the semi-final. Kuwait defeated Qatar by 6 wickets at the Bayuemas Oval. Batting first, Qatar scored 124 in 39.4 overs with Iqbal Hussain topscoring with 25 runs. Kuwait’s Navtej Singh bowled well taking 5 wickets for 21 runs. Kuwait needed 40.4 overs to surpass Qatar’s score losing 4 wickets. Ali Raza (33) and Ibrahim Saifudin (30*) batted well. Navtej was adjudged man of the match.
At the Selangor Turf Club Ground, Singapore thrashed Brunei by 9 wickets in a match that ended before lunch. Brunei batting first were bundled for a paltry total of 30 in 17.4 overs. Mayank Dalakoti was in devastating form capturing 6 wickets costing 11 runs in 9 consecutive overs while Md. Irfan Madakia took 3 wickets for 3 runs in 3.4 overs.
At the Kinrara Oval, Bahrain upstaged United Arabs Emirates (UAE) by 4 wickets. UAE batting first scored 150 in 40.2 overs. Waseem Bari topscored with 42. Pranav Arora (37) chipped in useful runs. Bahrain’s Sundeep Sen took 3 wickets. Bahrain needing 3.3 runs an over have David Mathias and Mohd Danish to thank for. Both hit half centuries, man of the match David (56) and Danish (51) in even time to enable Bahrain to reach the target of 151 runs losing 6 wickets in 43.1 overs.
(Based on report at www.MalaysiaCricket.com)