Touring Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) saw the best of Nepali teams in the three-day match that ended on Sunday at the TU Cricket Ground in an innings and 116-run win for the hosts.
CAN XI displayed brilliant bowling performance to bowl out MCC for 131 in the first innings and 146 in the second innings. In between, guided by Gyanendra Malla’s 141, CAN XI declared the innings at 393/6.
DAY I: March 27
Binod Das won the toss and elected to bowl first. Binod and his opening pace partner Paras Khadka shared six wickets between them to give CAN XI early initiative.
Binod got Iain Fletcher caught by Dipendra Chaudhary at slips and Paras got Neil Jones caught behind by keeper Manoj Vaishya to make it 6/2 for MCC in the sixth over. They soon lost Matt Walker (16), bowled by Paras, and was on backfoot with scorecard reading 21/3.
MCC middle order showed some resistence with Keith Newell (28), Keith Parsons (35) and Min Patel (29) getting some runs. Newell, who retired hurt at 20, returned when the team was struggling at 123/9 and added eight more runs before falling last – to Binod.
Apart from Binod and Paras, Basant Regmi got three wickets while Gyanendra grabbed a wicket.
In reply, Nepal lost openers early. Paresh Lohani (14) and Dipendra (8) could not score but partnership between Shakti Gauchan and Gyanendra ended the day for Nepal at 73/2.
DAY II: March 28
Gyanendra Malla hit a brilliant century as Nepali batting dominated the day. Resuming the day at 30 not out, he went on to complete a century.
He partnered 152 runs with Shakti, who resuming the day at 18, completed his half-century in 176 balls with six fours before being bowled out by Min Patel.
Sarad Vesawkar joined Gyanendra and the pair added 81 runs. Gyanendra was caught by Mark Dale off Luke O’Reilly after scoring 141 off 228 balls with 14 fours and two sixes.
Sarad then continued the domination over MCC with Paras Khadka. Sarad fell 12 short of a century as O’Reilly got him caught by Patel after scoring 88 in 121 balls with 10 fours. It was however not before the pair added 101 runs.
When the day ended, Nepal was on a very good position of winning the match with Paras (48) and Basant Regmi (12) at the crease.
Day III: March 29
CAN XI declared early as soon as Paras, who completed his half-century, was run out. He got 57 off 81 balls while his partner Basant Regmi added six more runs to his overnight score.
MCC could only look for a draw as they needed 262 runs to make sure that Nepal bats again. On the third-day pitch, they should have proper plan against Nepali spinners to do so.
But they could not as spinners took charge after initial success from pacers. Binod got Iain Fletcher early while Paras got opener Matt Walker (37) to make it 45/2 before spinners took the charge.
Left-arm spinner Basant Regmi grabbed three wickets while off spinner Sanjam Regmi took two along with Rahul BK and Sarad sharing two remaining to end MCC’s innings at 146 in 65.2 overs.
Top scorer for MCC was Keith Parsons, who got 43. Nishel Patel got 23. Gyanendra Malla was adjudged man of the match.
Brief score: MCC 131 in 65.1 overs ((Keith Parsons 35, Min Patel 29, Keith Newell 28, Paras Khadka 3/20, Basant Regmi 3/20, Binod Das 3/25) and 146 in 65.2 overs (Keith Parsons 43, Matt Walker 37, Nishel Patel 23, Basant Regmi 3/27, Sanjam Regmi 2/46) lost to CAN XI 393/6d (Gyanendra Malla 141, Sarad Vesawkar 88, Paras Khadka 57, Shakti Gauchan 51, Luke O’Reilly 2/66. Glen Read 2/79) by an innings and 116 runs.