Nepal confirmed its place in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4 with a thumping victory over Cayman Islands in Medicina, Italy.
Photo by International Cricket Council
In a crucial match important for relegation, Nepal bowled out Cayman Islands for 69 in 39.5 overs — with left-arm spinner Basant Regmi taking four wickets. Nepal”s batting was not on par with bowling but the victory was completed in 17.2 overs at the loss of three wickets.
Mahesh Chhetri started aggressively but he edged to second slip trying to cut wide to M Bryan. He scored 19 off 22 balls. An over later, Anil Mandal (2) departed edging to rising delivery of C Wright.
At 27/2, Paras Khadka and Shakti Gauchan added 24 runs before the skipper was clean bowled trying to lift a shot. He made 13 off 20. Shakti (13 not out) and Gyanendra Malla (9 not out) then took Nepal home without further damage.
Earlier, Cayman Islands elected to bat first. They started slow but well adding 17 for opening stand. A clever work by Mahesh behind the wicket undid J Linton, who forgot to step back after leaving Amrit Bhattarai”s delivery to keeper.
Amrit then claimed R Sealy (11) who top-edged to Anil while trying to pull. Mehboob Alam, who bowled third for Manjeet Shrestha shared new ball with Amrit, claimed two quick wickets as Cayman went down to 25/5 in the 12th over.
R Bovell tried to held back the innings with fighting 31 not out but he ran out of partners as Basant came into action drying up runs and picking regular wickets. Rahul Biswokarma also claimed a wicket.
Man of the Match Basant Regmi commented, “I played my normal game today to claim my four wickets and it’s always nice to have your achievements recognised but ultimately I and the team are disappointed that we have not won promotion to Division 3.
“We still have the belief as a side that we could have been promoted but we just did not perform to the standard of cricket we know we are capable of playing. It’s now a case of returning to Nepal to look at what went wrong and to correct it for the future”.
On Saturday, Nepal plays Tanzania for third place. Tanzania defeated Nepal in the league match defending 117 that made it difficult for Nepal to reach the final and qualify for the Division 3.
Argentina and Cayman Islands will play the fifth-place playoff but both of them have been now been relegated to Division 5 while USA and Italy have been promoted to Division 3 and will compete for the title.
On Friday, Italy defeated Tanzania by 167 runs. They won all matches except the one against Nepal. USA beat Argentina by 196 runs.