By Devendra Subedi, Colombo
Basanta Regmi and Ratan Rauniyar led Nepal to an unbelievable one-wicket victory over Test nation New Zealand in one of the finest run-chases in the U-19 Cricket World Cup to win the Plate Championship at the P Sara Stadium.
Basanta played the innings of his life scoring match-winning 66 runs at a crunch time when Nepal was down to 75/6 chasing 204. Ratan gave the finishing touch in the nail-biting finish hitting the winning boundary to the backward square leg with just two balls to spare. He finished up unbeaten on 26 off 19 balls.
“I just tried to rotate the strike with Basanta and in the last over with Raj (Shrestha) ensuring we took at least a single every ball,” Ratan said. The off-spinner partnered Basanta for 44 runs for the ninth wicket.
Earlier, Basanta and Prem Chaudhary were the ones who brought Nepal in the match after the top order failed miserably. “It is an unbelievable victory for us as we were down at 75/6 after 27 overs,” said skipper Kanishka Chaugai.
“I still can’t believe Basanta played such an innings and Ratan finished with such an ease. It’s like a dream win for us,” said vice-captain Paras Khadka. Kaniska made 17 while Paras got four.
“When I was batting with Prem, we thought we would take the match as close as possible,” Basanta said. “We never thought that we would take Nepal to victory.”
Basanta’s 74-ball knock ended in the second ball of the 49th over and Nepal needed 13 runs off 10 balls at that stage.
Ratan and Raj, the last pair, had to get 10 runs off the last over bowled by Colin Munro. Ratan got a double off the first ball followed by a bye run. Raj took a single in the third ball. Ratan was beaten off the fourth ball that was no-balled as the Kiwis forgot to put four fielders inside the 30-yard circle. With four runs required in the last three balls, Ratan glided the ball past a diving fielder to boundary.
Earlier, Nepali spinners spearheaded by Basanta restricted the Kiwis to 204 in 49.2 overs after they decided to bat first. Pacer Amrit Bhattarai got a double strike in his third over with wickets off successive deliveries to push Kiwis on to the back foot.
Paras, as usual, bowled economically. It was Basanta who picked vital wickets of Todd Astle (66), big hitting K Barnett (26) and R Karaitiana (14). He is the most successful Nepali bowler in the tournament with 12 wickets in six matches. Sharad Vesawkar, too, got two wickets while Paras claimed one.
ICC President Ehsan Mani gave away the Plate while CEO of Cricket Sri Lanka Duleep Mendis and President of Cricket Sri Lanka Jayanta Dharmadasa gave away medals to the Kiwis and Nepali players.