A day after hitting 68 not out, Raj Kumar Pradhan returned with another laudable performance. This time it was with the ball taking five wickets to wreck hovac on the Malaysians as the hosts were bowled out for 162 runs in first innings.
Raj Kumar’s second five-wicekt haul, and his best figure, gave Nepal a 62-run lead in the first innings. In their second innings, Nepal scored 37/1, losing Sarad Vesawkar for 23, with a overall lead of 101 runs going into the final day of the crucial ACC Premier League match at the Kinrara Oval Stadium.
For Malaysia, it was a sad tale of batting as only Esrafiz Aziz (46) and Suhan Kumar (40) giving some tough times to the Nepali bowlers.
Paras Khadka began the Malaysian trouble by bowling Rakesh Madhavan for 12. Vice-captain Shakti Guachan then removed Dinesh Mathuraman (5) caught by Raj Kumar at the deep covers. Part timer Sarad Vesawkar picked up the other opener Suhan Kumar with Mehboob Alam completing the catch as the hosts went down to 58/3.
Then it was Raj Kumar all over. The leg-spinner took five wickets in his 18-over spell getting rid of Rohan Selvaratnam (14), Thushara Kodikara (7), Suresh Navaratnam (11), Shanker Retinam (0) and M Krishnamurathi (8).
Rohan Suppiah (9) was run out and captain Binod Das trapped top-scorer Aziz plumb to end the Malaysia innings. The day was gloomly and the rain disturbed the match time and again finally ending it after Nepal batted 11 overs in the second innings.
Sarad Vesawkar scored 23 runs before being stumped by Shankar off Krishnamurathi. Nepal will be looking to play the first session tomorrow and getting as much as possible runs before finally trying to bowl out Malaysia for a outright win.
So far, Nepal had earned 10 points to Malaysia’s 8.5 from the match.