It was a bad day of cricket for Nepal, and that came against the strongest team in the region as Nepal lost to three-time champion UAE by nine wickets in the ACC Trophy 2006 at the Kinrara Cricket Academy Ground here Thursday.
Nepal was bowled out for only 103 runs in 37 overs before UAE achieved the target in 20.3 overs without any difficulty. One of the favorites of the event, Nepal even failed to pose any challenge to the team filled with expatriates. It is the fifth time that Nepal has lost to UAE in one-dayers.
“We batted poorly,” coach Roy Dias commented. “With 100 runs on board, there is no hope of winning. Hopefully it’s the last bad day for us.” With the defeat, Nepal’s hopes of playing in Asia Cup has been dashed while the qualification for the World Cup Qualifying Series Division III is still alive as ACC announced here that two teams – other than UAE and Oman, would be qualified for the WC qualifiers.
After being asked to bat, Nepal began cautiously. Paresh Lohani was trapped leg before in the fourth over when he tried to pull a short-pitch delivery from Javed Ismail that did not bounce as per his expectation. Gyanendra Malla and Sharad Vesawkar then stabalized the innings scoring slowly. They added 31 runs before the former was trapped leg before by Ali Asad Abbas for eight.
Sharad kept on scoring occasional boundaries but he too failed to continue as his attempt for a backfoot punch resulted in an edged catch by wicketkeeper Abdul Rehman off Asad. He was the topscorer of the innings with 26 off 50 balls. Then it was a show of poor batting performance against spinners  Sri Lankan left-arm Shadeep Silva and Mohammad Tauqir. Both took three wickets each and left Nepali innings in disarray.
Only Paras Khadka (23 of 32 balls) and Shakti Gauchan (14 off 34) showed some resistance as the batsmen continued playing careless shots. Mehboob Alam (4), Basanta Regmi (3) and Manoj Vaishya (0) were out playing unnecessary shots. Captain Binod Das remained unbeaten on seven.
In reply, UAE captain Arshad Ali gave the team a flying start beginning with three fours in the first over bowled by Mehboob. Shakti, who replaced Mehboob after just an over, bowled Mohd Iqbal (2) in the fifth over, but then it was a professional batting show by the UAE that stole the show.
Ali scored 75 off 61 balls including 11 fours and two sixes while Saqib Ali got 23 off 54 with three fours as the match completed immediately after lunch. “We tried a few things like introducing spinners early,” Dias said. “But they were never under pressure at all.”
Dias was not happy with the seniors. “The disappointing thing is the seniors are not playing well,” he said. “Mehboob, Paresh and Shakti should prove that they deserve a place in the Nepal team.”
Dias is hoping that Nepal wins the third-place playoff to qualify for the WCQS III. Nepal will now play Afghanistan, loser of the other semifinal with Hong Kong, in the third-place playoff on Friday at the Selangor Turf Club.