For 15-year-old Nischal Pandey, the ACC U-16 Elite Cup is already a big success. His third man of the match award winning performance helped helped Nepal enter the semifinals with a 85-run victory over Bahrain at the BSAM Ground.
The Chitwan boy scored 74 helping his team reach 206/9 in 40 overs after choosing to bat first and took five wickets with his left-arm spin to restrict Bahrain for 121/9.
Team Nepal celebrates a wicket. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
In Group A matches of the day, Singapore outplayed Thailand for a 175-run victory at TU Ground to put a leg in the semifinals. Malaysia beats Saudi Arabia by six wickets as leaving all three teams having chances of proceeding forward.
Opening the innings, Nischal and Sharad Khadka put Nepal in strong position. Sharad was out scoring 26 runs but Nischal continued scoring freely despite not getting good support from other end.
Hari Chaulagain hit brisk 27 to help Nepal cross 200-mark. For Bahrain, Lalith Lal and Nikhil Bolar each took two wickets.
Bahrain’s reply began in disaster as Hari claimed two wickets in two balls to make it 0/2 after three balls. Then onwards, Bahrain slowed down scoring while saving wickets until vice-captain Nischal was brought in for bowling.
Nischal Pandey proving to be a fine all-rounder. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
The left-arm spinner, who already had nine wickets in two matches, took another five wickets to take his tally to 14 wickets. He bowled eight overs giving away 28 runs.
Apart from Nischal and Hari, Sharad and Rajiv Shah also grabbed a wicket each.
Nepal! Nepal!! Students of Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidhyalaya cheer for Nepal. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
At IOE, Saudi Arabia won the toss and elected to bat first. They were bowled out in 36.2 overs for 125.
Mohd Usman topscored with 37 off 50 balls while Salman Patel (25), captain Mohd Abdulla (22) and Faheen Afrad (17) contributed in Saudi’s total.
It was Syahdat Ramli who spearheaded the Malaysian bowling with 4/25 in 7.2 overs while Nik Nabil took 3/20. Tharmaraj Mohan, Azwan Idris and Md Fetri Sham also grabbed a wicket.
Malaysia needed 24.1 overs to chase down the target losing only four wickets.
Although they had a bad start losing both the openers in four overs for 21 runs, Ramli (29 off 36) and Ahmad Tajudin (unbeaten 45 off 58 balls) put them ahead.
Idris contributed 16 runs while Abdulla, Mohd Adnan, Abdul Rafie Baig and Afrad each took a wicket for Saudi.
Ramli was declared man of the match.
At TU, man of the match Vikas Rajagopal scored the second half-century in the tournament to help Singapore reach 246/5 in 40 overs. Rajagopala got 61 runs.
Thailand was bowled out for 71 in 31.4 overs with Shivan Ahuja taking three wickets.