Despite dominating the proceedings, Nepal settled for a dour draw against Hong Kong as wet ground conditions in the second Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U-15 Cup two-day match at the Royal Selangor Cricket Club Ground, Malaysia.
However, Nepal accumulated 10 bonus points from the match to climb to the second position in the Group A standings keeping alive hopes to enter the last four.
Nepal managed a 65-run first innings lead after Hong Kong declared their innings on 87/9. Nepal had scored 152/7 in the first innings. Nepal could have chances of wining the match if the weather had permitted full 90 overs of play but it was the case the play was abandoned after the lunch.
Hong Kong played 47 overs in which Zuaid Khan topscored with 38 runs. Nepal picked up nine Hong Kong wickets that yielded 4 points as Hong Kong cleverly declared its first innings 65 runs behind Nepal.
Krishna Karki once again shone with the ball for Nepal. The lanky seamer picked up three wickets in his 18 overs today giving away 26 runs. In the hot and humid conditions he bowled a long spells to spearhead Nepali attack. Bibek Dali also picked up three wickets in his 12 overs while three of Hong Kong Batsmen were run out.
With just 22 overs of day’s play remaining and the match heading for a certain draw Nepal started its second innings. When the match ended, Nepal was 133 runs ahead. Aakash Pariyar got a decent knock of 43 runs with three hits to the fence. Before he was caught at short mid wicket, he shared a 66-run second wicket stand with opener Sagar Pun who once again showed tremendous patience playing 86 balls for his 16. Prithu Banskota did not bother to score while the other not out batsman was Subendu Pandey.
Suprisingly Nepal did not declare the second innings to give a few overs at the end of the match to Hong Kong. If Nepal had claimed a few wickets with the lead already beyond 100 runs, that could have added few more points.
“I decided not to take the risk because Hong Kong had some good stroke players and we could have ended up loosing the match. Moreover, with the all important match against Singapore coming up, I wanted my batsmen to have a knock at the center,” said coach Roy Dias.
Now Nepal has accumulated 19 points from two games to climb at the second spot of the Group A standings. Malaysia, that today registered a ten wicket win over Singapore, is leading the table with 32 points. Nepal is closely followed by Singapore with 18 points. Malaysia is already through to the semifinals and the second team would be the winner between Nepal vs Singapore match that starts on June 1.
Nepal skipper Prithu Banskota was declared the man of the match for his gritty 31 in the first innings of the match.
By Devendra, Kuala Lumpur