The hosts, Nepal, were reduced to mere spectators as Afghanistan juggernaut rolled at the ACC T20 Cup semi-finals, Friday morning.
The match drew the largest number of spectators of the championship, but they had to come back empty-handed on the day their favorite team looked ordinary.
The match was a complete contrast to the one Nepal played against Saudi Arabia, where batting clicked and bowling was sharp. It was as if the hosts had run out of steam.
Afghanistan outplayed Nepal infront of 10,000 spectators. Photo by PhotoEverest.com
The match was reduced to 16-over-a-side affair, as the haze and dew made it difficult to start the match on time. Nepali openers looked out of sorts against lively pace from Afghan bowlers.
Hamid Hasan, the pacer from Afghanistan, bowler 4-over quota for 7 runs and took a wicket. Halfway through, Nepal was tottering in 30s, as most batsmen failed to connect shots.
Captain Paras Khadka pushed himself to 29-ball 30, and vice captain Gyanendra Malla scored 10, while nobody else touched double figure. Dawlat Zadran took 4 for 13.
As a spectator, you could be forgiven, if you thought the worst was over. A target of 69 was never going to be enough for the side that’s ranked ahead of Bangladesh in Twenty20 Internationals.
Man of the match Daulat Zardan tokk 4 wickets. Photo by PhotoEverest.com
There were no miracles going to happen. The target was duly achieved in the 10th over. Opener Karim Shadiq found boundary ropes 7 times in his 26-ball 32. His partner, Shabir Noori scored 27, off 22 deliveries, with three hits over the fence to take the team to the final in two days time.
Following the match, Coach Pubudu Dassanayake said: “Our players could not play against the pace.”
Captain Paras was somber, saying Nepal was ‘completely outplayed’.
It was not the defeat but the manner of defeat that would haunt the players and the coach for some time now. It was the capitulation and lack of application that would raise a few questions.
Lack of application during batting meant the dot ball percentage was huge, as singles dried up and late order ended up throwing their bat at almost everything.
Capitulation was symbolized by Binod Das over, 4th of Afghanistan innings, where 21 was scored – all over the park. No player was seen going to Das and talking to him. Perhaps, the match was lost much before the players took to the field.
Brief Scorecard: Nepal 68 for 9 wickets in 16 overs (P Khadka 30, B Regmi 10, D Zadran 4-13, Z Khan 2-13) lost to Afghanistan 70 for 1 wicket in 9.2 overs (K Sadiq 32, S Noori 27 not out, B Regmi 1-12) by 9 wickets. MoM: D Zardan (Afghanistan)
Cricket Nepal (cricket.com.np) provided live scores and commentary for the match. Click ‘Replay’ below to read the live commentaries.