Nepal’s ACC Trophy Elite 2008 campaign began in grand style as it beats Hong Kong by 44 runs at the Selangor Turf Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday.
Choosing to bat on the damp conditions, Nepal scored 245/7 in 50 overs with Paras Khadka topscoring with 81. Hong Kong’s run-chase was restricted to 201/9 with Binod Das and Basant Regmi each picking up three wickets.
Kanishka Chaugai was undone in the first over by a low keeping delivery but Paresh and Sarad ensured that the national team did not suffer from the loss with 96-run partnership. The very next over by Zain Abbas yielded 20 runs, and there was no stopping to the pair who also took advantage of two dropped catches.
Sarad scored 48 off 73 balls with nine boundaries before being stumped on a beautiful delivery by Nadeem Ahmed. Paresh, who got 42 off 75 balls with five fours and a six, was trapped lbw three balls later by Moner Ahmed as Nepal went down to 97/3 in 25 overs.
It was then time for u-19 captain Paras to show his heroics. He began cautiously but once he got going, he built his innings with power-hitting. Paras scored 81 off 72 balls with eight fours and three sixes, and was out in 48th over. Gyanendra Malla (23) shared 51-run fifth wicket partnership with Paras and Mehboob Alam (20) made a handy contribution.
In the second innings, captain Binod found edge of his counterpart Tabarak Dar’s bat before Nadeem, who opened for national team for the first time, had some beautiful drives to accelerate last year’s finalist to scoring rate to near six. But he scooped a cut to Paras at point of Mehboob to end his innings of 23 runs off 21 balls.
Six balls later, Binod had James Atkinson (8) caught behind by Mahesh Chhetri to make it 35/3 in seven overs. Then after, Hong Kong tried to build partnership but was wrecked by regular wicket fall.
Butt Hussain, who took 16 balls to open scoring, got 52 off 123 balls. He hit his third six to reach 50 but Basant Regmi got him next ball. Basant finished with 3/41 while Binod returned with figure of 3/57. Man of the match Paras and Mehboob each took a wicket.
“It was good performance all together,†Nepal’s manager and former national captain Pawan Agrawal said. “Paras showed his mental toughness throughout his innings.†Agrawal believed there were a few areas for improvement.
In other matches of the ACC Trophy Elite, four-time champion lost to Saudi Arabia by 29 runs – their first loss in the event since 2000 while hosts Malaysia beat Bahrain by 33 runs. Singapore beat Qatar by 35 runs. Nepal plays Qatar at the Royal Military Ground on Saturday.
| Round | ACC Trophy Elite 2008 League |
| Toss | Nepal (Bat) |
| Umpires | Sarika Prasad & Dashantha Eknayake |
| MoM | Paras Khadka of Nepal |
| Points | Nepal 2, Hong Kong 0 |
| Result | Nepal win by 44 runs |
Nepal Innings
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| P Lohani | lbw | b M Ahmed | 42 | 75 | 5 | 1 |
| K Chaugai | b I Ahmad | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Vesawkar | st J Atkinson | b N Ahmed | 48 | 73 | 9 | 0 |
| P Khadka | c MI Gull | b Z Abbas | 81 | 72 | 8 | 3 |
| M Alam | c KH Butt | b M Ahmed | 20 | 28 | 2 | 0 |
| G Malla | c N Ahmed | b MI Gull | 23 | 31 | 2 | 0 |
| B Regmi | c N Ahmed | b MI Gull | 9 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| SP Gauchan | not out | 12 | 8 | 1 | 0 | |
| M Chhetri+ | not out | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b1 lb1 w4 nb2) | 8 | ||||
| TOTAL | 7 wickets for | 245 |
| FOW 1-1(K Chaugai) 2-97(S Vesawkar) 3-97(P Lohani) 4-135(M Alam) 5-186(G Malla) 6-230(P Khadka) 7-233(B Regmi) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| I Ahmad | 9 | 2 | 36 | 1 |
| Z Ali | 3 | 0 | 30 | 0 |
| N Amar | 10 | 2 | 38 | 0 |
| N Ahmed | 10 | 1 | 37 | 1 |
| M Ahmed | 10 | 1 | 48 | 2 |
| MI Gull | 6 | 0 | 31 | 2 |
| Z Abbas | 2 | 0 | 23 | 1 |
Hong Kong Innings
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| N Ahmed | c P Khadka | b M Alam | 32 | 12 | 5 | 0 |
| T Dar* | c M Chhetri | b B Das | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| J Atkinson+ | c M Chhetri | b B Das | 8 | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| KH Butt | st M Chhetri | b B Regmi | 52 | 123 | 1 | 3 |
| N Amar | lbw | b P Khadka | 11 | 27 | 1 | 1 |
| Z Abbas | c M Chhetri | b B Das | 13 | 40 | 1 | 0 |
| I Ahmad | b B Regmi | 15 | 19 | 0 | 1 | |
| M Ahmed | run out K Chaugai/M Chhe. | 20 | 13 | 1 | 1 | |
| A Sultanat | not out | 7 | 16 | 0 | 0 | |
| MI Gull | st M Chhetri | b B Regmi | 25 | 34 | 3 | 1 |
| Z Ali | not out | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b1 lb8 w7 nb0) | 16 | ||||
| TOTAL | 9 wickets for | 201 |
| FOW 1-8(T Dar) 2-30(N Ahmed) 3-35(J Atkinson) 4-64(N Amar) 5-100(Z Abbas) 6-129(I Ahmad) 7-152(M Ahmed) 8-163(KH Butt) 9-199(MI Gull) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| M Alam | 7 | 3 | 15 | 1 |
| B Das | 9 | 1 | 57 | 3 |
| P Khadka | 8 | 1 | 26 | 1 |
| SP Gauchan | 8 | 2 | 26 | 0 |
| B Regmi | 10 | 1 | 41 | 3 |
| RK Pradhan | 8 | 2 | 27 | 0 |
Photo Courtesy: Asian Cricket Council