Paras Leads Nepal to Plate Final

Captain Paras Khadka inspired Nepal to a thrilling four-run win over Namibia in the Plate Championship semifinal of the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup at the Johor Cricket Academy ground on Tuesday.

The lanky all-rounder topscored with 44 after winning the toss to take Nepal to a challenging score of 143/8 in the rain curtailed 34-overs match and then took two wickets apart from affecting a run out with a direct hit to condemn Namibia to a narrow loss.

He braved nausea in the later part of the second innings to marshal his troops rattled by Namibian assault and also bowled the crucial 32nd and 34th overs to take defending champion Nepal to the final. “Paras captained the team very well and handled the bowlers exceptionally under pressure,” Nepali coach Roy Dias lauded his skipper.

Chasing 144, Namibia made a cautious start under a light drizzle and made just seven runs in the first five overs. The openers then tried to hit out and were dismissed by Amrit Bhattarai and Paras to be reduced to 17/2. “We batted very slowly in the beginning and failed to get the early momentum,” Namibian coach Louis Foster said.

Nepal looked to be cruising to victory with the Namibians making just 22 runs in the 10 overs but captain LP van der Westhuizen, filling in for regular skipper Dawid Botha, who went back home for his university exams, had other intentions and flayed Nepali bowlers all around the park to put Nepal under tremendous pressure.

The Nepali fielders buckled under the assault and conceded runs due to poor ground fielding. “Our ground fielding was pathetic. We gave 20-30 runs and could have lost due to it,” Paras conceded.

The southpaw, who had also topscored with a polished 65 in the group match against Nepal, played a swashbuckling innings of 33 off just 28 balls including three fours and a towering six over midwicket off Raj Shrestha and added 50 runs for the third wicket with No 3 Raymond van Schoor.

He then played across the line and missed a full toss from Sagar Khadka to be dismissed lbw but van Schoor kept on batting intelligently to keep Namibia in the hunt until the end. “I felt good in the middle but I missed a full toss,” Westhuizen rued.
Namibia needed 28 runs from the last three overs with four wickets remaining and got 10 runs from an over of off-spin bowled by Paras. Left-arm spinner Rahul BK then took two wickets conceding three runs in the penultimate over to swing the pendulum decisively into Nepal’s favor.

Schoor lofted Paras to deep mid-wicket off the third ball of the last over but Anil Mandal took a good running catch as Namibia was left to score 13 runs off the last three balls. Schoor topscord with 48 off 73 balls.

Geri Jan Coetzee hit the last ball for a straight six but Namibia still lost by four runs to suffer yet another narrow defeat against Nepal following the three-run loss in the group game. Apart from Paras and Rahul, Raj also took a couple of wickets.

Earlier, Paras anchored Nepali innings before getting out in the 33rd over to give respectability to the total after the match started three hours behind schedule owing to persistent rain.

He made 44 off 63 with three fours and added vital 43 runs for the third wicket with opener Anil Mandal after yet another failure for Gyanendra Malla. Anil got three lives in his 54-ball 23 and looked to be getting into the rhythm before he was run out when Paras sent him back after calling for a single initially. Opener Mahesh Chhetri also got a life before being dismissed for nine.

“We gave too many extras and dropped a few catches though our ground fielding was good,” Namibian coach Foster said pointing toward the 21 extras that included 17 wides. Rom Shrestha then made 18 runs off 22 balls with a six and added crucial 27 runs with Paras to lift Nepali run rate above four. Sean Silver took three wickets while Keady Strauss got two for the losing side.

Nepal now plays the winner of Wednesday’s match between West Indies and Papua New Guinea in the final slated for Saturday.

BY PREM DHAKAL, Johar Bahru, Malaysia