Nepal entered the semifinals of the ACC U-19 Cup cricket tournament with an impressive 100-run victory over Singapore at the TU Cricket Ground today.
Nepal piled up 223/9 in the allotted 50 overs with Sarad Vesawkar scoring half-century and bowled out the opponents for 123 in 44.4 overs to set date with Kuwait for Thursday’s semifinal at the same venue.
Electing to bat first, captain Kaniska Chaugai and Yashwant Subedi gave a good start in the morning. They added 37 runs before Kaniska, at 24, edged a Christopher Janik delivery at slip to Rohan Tripathi in the 10th over. Yashwant continued with outstanding Sarad for next 10 overs. Yashwant was deceived by a delivery that kept low after making 30 off 49 balls.
Gyanendra joined Sarad and made mockery of Singaporean bowling scoring at ease and putting up a brilliant 69-run partnership. They took Nepal’s total to 158/2 in 36 overs. At the point, Nepal looked set to score a big total but the introduction of spinners Rizwan Madakia and Rohan Tripathi turned the innings.
Rizwan got Gyanendra in his very first over. He was stumped by Vignesh Balasubramanium, who had a brilliant day, after making 31 off 50 deliveries. Rohan got into act the next over taking a return catch off a top-edge to dismiss Paras Khadka cheaply.
From 158/2, Nepal went down to 195/8 with the spinner-duo doing the damage along with Vignesh. Sarad reached his fifty with an off-driven four in 70 balls and ended up scoring 68 runs in 96 deliveries with six fours. He was adjudged the man of the match.
Vignesh had four stumping in the innings. Nepal got past 200 because of some brisk shots from wicketkeeper Mahesh Chhetri. Mahesh ran 28 runs in the 34-ball knock that included no boundaries and was out in the last over off Rizwan.
After lunch, Nepal made it difficult for Singaporean batsmen to score runs. In the first 10 overs, bowled by Bantu Bataju and Amrit Bhattarai, they added 25 runs losing two wickets and that too including 16 extras.
At no point of the innings, did Singapore have a chance to win as Nepali spinners continued the good work done by pacers. Nepal used eight bowlers including super-sub Basanta Regmi, who replaced Yashwant, and bowled Singapore out for 123 runs.
Raj Shrestha, Ratan Rauniyar and Sarad each took two wickets while Bantu, Amrit, Shashi Keshari and Basanta took one each. However, Dias didn’t look happy with the bowling.
- REACTIONS
“We batted well, bowled well and fielded well and I hope we will continue this tomororow,” Nepali captain Kaniska Chaugai said. “The wicket was neutral, we hope to bat well.”
Man of the match Sarad Vesawkar hoped Nepal would improve batting. “We would like to put better score in coming matches.”
Coach Roy Dias was called upon to the presentation ceremony by match referee Raquibul Hasan for some words on his five years with Nepali team. “Nepali cricketers were wonderful during the five years,” he said. “Nepal had a long road ahead.”
Talking with NepalCricket.com later, Dias said the match provided much needed competitive match for Nepal. “It was a good game, it was after six-day rest,” he said. “Most of the batsmen got good knocks, and quite a few bowlers got chance to bowl.”
While asked what happened to Nepali batting at the later stage of the match, he praised the Singaporean efforts. “The spinners bowled really well, we lost wickets as we were eager to score,” he said adding that the lower order didn’t play good as they had very less chance of batting in such matches.
Talking about semifinal against Kuwait, Dias said it would be tough match. “We have to come good and improve in all departments,” he said. “We didn’t bowled that well today, we could have got them out much earlier.”
Singapore’s coach Sarika Shiva Prasad, who had visited Nepal to officiate three-day matches a couple of time, looked happy with what his team had performed. “Better team won today, Nepal is a champion team,” he said. “We put some pressure during batting which I feel good.”
“We bowled our spinners a bit late,” he added. “And missed a couple of chances early in the match.”
Answering the query how did the event went for him, he said he was disappointed with batting. “I am happy with bowling,” he said. “Batting was disappointing, we played 40+ overs in all matches but didn’t even cross 150 mark.”
“I wish Nepal all the best for the event,” the umpire who is with Buddhi Pradhan of Nepal is a member of ICC Associate and Affiliate Panel concluded.
All Photos: Bikash Karki