Youngsters Gyanendra Malla and Sharad Vesawkar scored half-centuries as Nepal started its ACC Trophy 2006 campaign with a six-wicket victory over Kuwait at the Kelab Aman Ground Monday.
Gyanendra scored 79 while Sharad got 62 as Nepal reached the target of 205 runs with 15 balls to spare. Earlier, Kuwait scored 204/7 in the allotted 50 overs despite captain Binod Das’ haul of 3/39. Gyanendra was chosen man of the match.
Making his senior debut in international one-day, Gyanendra had to bear the responsibility as an opener but he proved a worthy choice scoring at will. He played particularly well against the pacers in the early overs providing a solid foundation for the run-chase. Along with Paresh Lohani, Gyanendra added 79 runs for the first wicket before Paresh stepped forward and missed Habibullah’s delivery. He got 36 off 56 balls with five fours.
Gyanendra and Sharad then anchored Nepal’s innings adding 87 runs. Gyanendra reached his fifty in 69 balls and was dropped at deep mid-wicket on 52. He went on to score 27 more runs before miscuing a pull off Azmatullah. He hit seven boundaries in his knock.
“I feel good but I believe I could have done better,” Gyanendra said. He was afraid to open the innings in Pakistan but after scoring 78 not out against Pakistan National Academy, his confidence grew and he looked confident as an opener – a good substitution for Kanishka Chaugai.
Vice-captain Shakti Gauchan joined Sharad for a brief partnership worth 22 runs. Sharad was run out in the 47th over after scoring 62 runs off 95 balls with five fours. Both the batsmen, however, couldn’t raise their bats for reaching half-centuries as individual scores were not displayed on the scoreboard.
Hard-hitting Mehboob Alam gave a catch to the extra-cover region off the second ball before Paras Khadka went on to cream two consecutive boundaries to seal Nepal’s six-wicket victory. “It is a great morale boost for the team, especially in batting,” captain Binod commented. “It was good to see Gyanendra and Sharad bat. They were superb.”
Coach Roy Dias too lauded Gyanendra’s performance. “I was afraid for Gyanendra as he was not used to opening position,” he said. “But he played well with responsibility despite being the youngest member of the squad.”
Earlier, Nepal won the toss and elected to field on a cloudy day. It looked a good decision as Binod removed Nadeem Malik (7) in the sixth over before Mohammad Nawaz and Jagath Roshanta batted patiently adding 55 runs for the second wicket. Dhirendra Chand, brought into the playing eleven in the last minute, then broke the partnership clean bowling Nawaz (29) with a yorker. Jagath got 36 while Saud Qamar topscored with 44 runs that included just one boundary, a six off Basanta Regmi. He tried to reverse-pull Raj Kumar Pradhan to give Shakti a difficult catch.
Nepal’s fielding was not very good as the fielders dropped two catches – one by wicket-keeper Manoj Vaishya and the other a rather easy one by Paras. Kuwaiti batsmen dealt pacers with ease while spinners made their presence felt bringing down the Kuwaiti run-rate. Shakti gave away only 19 runs in his 10 overs while Raj Kumar gave only 15 runs in his first spell of six overs before being hit for 29 runs in the next four. Basanta Regmi too was economic in first spell giving away just 18 in six overs but was then hit for 15 runs in his seventh.
“Fielding wasn’t great, but I hope the players will learn from the match,” Dias said. Captain Das too shared his view. “I t was a bit below our standard,” he said. “But I believe that is because it was our first match. We’ve got to do better in coming matches.”
Nepal has a rest day on Tuesday and takes on Bhutan at the Royal Selangor Club on Wednesday.