Three-time champions Nepal began the ACC U-19 Elite Cup campaign with an easy seven-wicket victory over Singapore at the Selangor Turf Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Singapore were bundled out for 107 with debutant Rahul Biswokarma taking up three wickets. Nepal’s reply was whirlwind chase completing the target in 20.4 overs – thanks to Paras Khadka’s captain knock.
Mahesh Chhetri (15) and new opener Raj Shrestha (14) gave Nepal a steady start while Gyanendra Malla (25) got a few runs during the chase. But it was Paras, who stole the limelight scoring 36 not out in 32 balls. His knock included four boundaries and two sixes.
Earlier, Nepal elected to field first. Singapore looked shaky from the beginning and they lost three wickets by the end of 10th over with only 24 runs on board. James Muruthi (18), Jayanth Ganapathy (32) and Rizwan Madakia (14) did get some runs but the spin-duo of Rahul and Raj always kept them under pressure.
Singapore lost three wickets for 104 and were out for 107. Paras, Raj and Chandra Saud took two wickets each to add to Rahul’s three.
| Singapore Vs Nepal |
| 20-Aug-2007 ACC U-19 Elite Cup |
| Nepal Win by 7 wkts |
| Round | League |
| Toss won by | Singapore |
| Umpires | MS Ranawat & Iftikar Malik |
| Player / Match | Khadka, Paras |
| Singapore 107 All Out (Overs 45.2) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| R Tripathi | c M Chhetri | b P Khadka | 8 | 22 | 1 | 0 |
| A Menon | b C Saud | 6 | 18 | 1 | 0 | |
| Anish Menon | c M Chhetri | b P Khadka | 3 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| J Muruthi | c&b R Shrestha | 18 | 40 | 2 | 0 | |
| P Dadlani | c M Chhetri | b C Saud | 7 | 25 | 1 | 0 |
| J Ganapathy | c G Malla | b R Biswokarma | 32 | 69 | 4 | 0 |
| T Signam | run out S Khadka | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| M Rizwan | not out | 14 | 39 | 2 | 0 | |
| TW Keng | c A Gupta | b R Biswokarma | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| S Maylavarapu | st M Chhetri | b R Biswokarma | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| N Salim | b R Shrestha | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b0 lb5 w12 nb0) | 17 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 107 |
| FOW1-17(R Tripathi) 2-24(A Menon) 3-24(Anish Menon) 4-47(P Dadlani) 5-71(J Muruthi)6-71(T Signam) 7-104(J Ganapathy) 8-104(TW Keng) 9-104(S Maylavarapu)10-107(N Salim) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| A Bhattarai | 8 | 1 | 19 | 0 |
| P Khadka | 8 | 1 | 21 | 2 |
| C Saud | 6 | 0 | 26 | 2 |
| R Biswokarma | 8 | 4 | 19 | 3 |
| Rom Shrestha | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| R Shrestha | 9.2 | 5 | 13 | 2 |
| Nepal 1st Innings 108/3 Closed (Overs 20.4) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| M Chhetri+ | b M Rizwan | 15 | 27 | 3 | 0 | |
| R Shrestha | lbw | b M Rizwan | 14 | 22 | 2 | 0 |
| G Malla | c J Ganapathy | b M Rizwan | 25 | 30 | 3 | 1 |
| P Khadka* | not out | 36 | 32 | 4 | 2 | |
| A Thapa | not out | 10 | 13 | 2 | 0 | |
| extras | (b0 lb0 w8 nb0) | 8 | ||||
| TOTAL | 3 wickets for | 108 |
| FOW1-35(M Chhetri) 2-36(R Shrestha) 3-88(G Malla) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| J Ganapathy | 2 | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| TW Keng | 2 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| M Rizwan | 8.4 | 2 | 33 | 3 |
| A Menon | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Anish Menon | 5 | 0 | 31 | 0 |
| R Tripathi | 2 | 0 | 14 | 0 |