On their way to Jersey for the World Cricket League Division 5, Nepal stopped at Guernsey for two-friendly matches both of which they won comfortably.
Nepal beat Bahamas by 201 runs before beating hosts Guernsey by 70 runs. Nepal scored 209/7 in 50 overs and bowled out Guernsey for 139.
Against Guernsey, Nepal were at one stage in the mire at 65 for 5 against some excellent Guernsey bowling. They were rescued by a partnership of 103 between Sarad Veswakar and Mehboob Alam, the latter providing the impetus with 45 off 59 balls with Veswakar making 72 from 139 balls.
Basant Regmi remained unbeaten on 20 while Binod Das got 15 not out.
Guernsey were well aware of the potency of Nepal’s seam attack and Alam struck immediately with the wicket of Mark Jefferies with one of his big inswingers. The wickets of Smit, Oliver and Ravenscroft followed quickly and Guernsey were soon four down with only 40 on the board.
Skipper Stuart Le Prevost with a hard fought 41 and Jeremy Frith with 24 steadied the ship and were rebuilding nicely before the injured Frith, batting with a runner, was run out. Le Prevost kept going and appeared unlucky to be given leg before. With his dismissal the home side’s chances were fading and Rajkumar Pradhan’s legbreaks wrapped things up with 4 for 36.
Mehboob and Paras Khadka each took two wickets.
The match was a very useful exercise for both teams. Guernsey competed very well and the real difference between the two sides was the sheer quality of Nepal’s seam attack which could be too much for most of their opponents in Jersey.
Nepal knew that they had been tested by a decent Guernsey side seeking to demonstrate that it would not be out of its depth at WCL Division 5 level. The massive gulf between these two teams and the Bahamas suggests that the Bahamas will struggle in Jersey and that Nepal will be strongly fancied to reach the final. Bahamas lost to Guernsey too.
Earlier, Nepal crushed the Bahamas by 201 runs at the Port Soif ground.
Nepal batted first and made 272 for 7 in their allotted 50 overs. Paras Khadka top scored with an unbeaten 63 while Shakti Gauchan with 50 and Gyanandra Malla with 48 were the other main contributors.
G Armstrong (2 for 19) and N Ekanyake (2 for 42) returned the best figures for the Bahamas.
The Bahamas got off to an awful start and were 6 for 3 after 4 overs. Then 60 for 6 before being dismissed for 71 in 31 overs. C Atkinson (19) and M Ford (18) were their top scorers as Mehaboob Alab (2 for 16 in 6 overs), Binod Das (2 for 20 in 6 overs) and Rajkumar Pradam (3 for 19 in 9.4 overs) ran through them.
From CricketEurope.com