Nepal U-19 cricket squad, preparing for ACC U-19 Elite Cup scheduled to be held in Thailand from February 1 to 10, suffered a sloppy loss in their first one-day match against Bangladesh U-19 on Wednesday. Bangladesh thrashed Nepal by 10 wickets in the first match of the three-match series.
Captains before the match.
Nepal U-19 won the toss and elected to bat on the Sylhet Divisional Stadium. Bangladesh bundled out Nepal for 70 runs in 33.2 overs and crossed the target in 11 overs with 74 runs on the board.
Faizlur Rahman (Faizal Khan) and Subash Khakurel put up 19 runs within four overs and gave a good start to the team. Nepal were 55/3 in the completion of 21 overs but Naresh Budhayer, Pradeep Airee and Rahul BK, who were expected to play blistering innings, got out cheaply as Nepal added just 15 runs for the loss of the last seven wickets.
Airee, Vice-captain BK, Krishna Karki and Avinash Karn were out for ducks during the proceeding. Airee was caught at the point in an attempt to hit a ball out side the off stump while BK, Karki and Karna were caught at the slip.
After losing eight wickets within the 30 overs mark, Nepal adopted batting power play in an expectation to resurrect the innings but lost the wicket off Sagar Pun in the very first ball of the power play. Last hope for Nepali side Pun was bowled out as ball took the inside edge of the bat. He scored 19 runs, which was the highest contribution in the team. Pun played 50 balls and struck only one boundary.
Nepali innings came to an end as Bhuwan Karki got LBW out for two runs.
Earlier, opener Khan contributed 16 runs while Khakurel struck 13 runs. Abdur Rashid took three wickets while man of the match Nyim Islam bowled skipper Prithu Baskota for three runs to start Nepal´s demolition. Islam bowled eight overs and gave away seven runs keeping three maiden overs and claimed other two wickets of Airee and BK. Leg-spinner Jobber Hussein also took three wickets.
In the run chase, Saddam Hussein (unbeaten 25 runs) and Jahed Jabbed (unbeaten 44 runs) sealed the victory. Jabbed played 27 balls and struck seven boundaries and two sixes.
Nepali coach Jagat Tamata said that the match turned to be one-sided as his chief batsmen failed one after another. Tamata´s counterpart Jafarul Ishan said that Nepali players were found exhausted since they reached Sylhet just a day before the match.
As the match did not last even for 50 overs, Nepal U-19 and Bangladesh U-19 played an unofficial Twenty20 match upon the request of Nepali side. In the T20 match, Bangladesh put up 141/6. In rpely, Nepal scored 117 runs in the allotted 20 overs losing eight wickets.