Gyanendra Malla scored a half-century as Nepal completed a cakewalk eight-wicket victory over Oman on Saturday at the ACC U-19 Elite Cup at the Club Aman, Malaysia.
With the win, Nepal remained unbeaten in the event and topped Group A. The three-time defending champions now meet hosts Malaysia in Monday’s semifinal. In other semifinal, Afghanistan meets UAE.
At the Club Aman, rainfall delayed the start of the match by 40 minutes. Nepal chose to field first and Oman was bundled out for 90 runs in 47.3 overs. Nepal completed the victory in 22.3 overs.
Gyanendra was the man of the match as he single-handedly took the charge as another experiment with opening pair didn’t yield much. Rom Shrestha, as an opener, could only score 8 runs and was out for an aggressive shot.
Mahesh Chhetri and Gyanendra partnered 70 runs taking Nepal eight runs short of victory. But Mahesh, who had a brilliant day as wicketkeeper earlier, was bowled by Nikhil Xavier. Gyanendra hit a boundary to complete Nepal’s victory as Akash Gupta (3*) on the other end.
Gyanendra remained unbeaten on 58 off 63 balls with six fours and a six. Gyanendra who showed form against UAE scoring unbeaten 47 said he was happy to get the team into the last four. Oman, who was already eliminated from the event, came up with the noble idea of using spinners from very first over, but didn’t materialize much as Nepali batsmen played with ease.
Earlier, pacer Abhaya Rana provided the early breakthrough to put pressure on Oman. Playing his first game of the event, he removed both openers in similar fashion, caught behind by Mahesh, while his partner Amrit Bhattarai bowled two batsmen in two balls to leave Oman struggling at 19/4 after 9 overs.
Spinners Raj Shrestha and Rahul Biswokarma continued pinning batsmen and together they took four wickets as Oman went down to 69/8. Only Vivek Venkataram played comfortably scoring 39 runs off 62 balls.
Towards the end, it was Shah Taha (17) who took Oman close to three-digit and was last man out – a victim to captain Paras Khadka. Four of Omani batsmen returned without scoring.
“The pitch was suitable for us as it was slightly wet due to rain,†Paras said after the match. Roy Dias, Nepal’s coach, lauded Gyanendra expressing his concern over the opening pair. Nepal had already tried three combinations in as many innings.