Nepal began the World Cricket League Division 4 campaign with a thumping five-wicket victory over Singapore but not without worries over batting for upcoming matches.
Man of the match Amrit Bhattarai was the key of Nepal’s victory with his impressive left-arm pace taking first four wickets to push the opponents in backfoot as early as possible.
Man of the match Amrit Bhattarai. ICC Photo/Peter Lim
His heroics gave Nepali spinners a foundation to crush Singaporean innings for 111 in 39.5 overs before Nepal overcame earlier tumble to reach the target with half of the overs and wickets remaining.
Singapore was 30/4 with all four wickets going to Amrit – three of them falling in same fashion, caught behind.
Binod Das made a return to the national team and bowled well but could not claim a wicket while captain Paras Khadka who bowled two overs of pace went for 12 runs and soon turned towards the spinners.
Left-arm orthodox Basant Regmi, Shakti Gauchan and off-spinner Sanjam Regmi claimed the remaining wickets to end the innings soon. Basant took three for 30, Sanjam 2 for 4 in 4 overs and Shakti 1 for 8 in 9 overs.
Some hitting by last pair, who partnered 23 runs took Singapore total of three-digit. A Param (31), Mulela Dharmichand (13), last pair Shoaib Razzak (10) and Amjad Mahboob (16) were run scorers for Singapore.
Nepal’s reply wasn’t great either with Anil Mandal going for a duck and Gyanendra Malla (12) departing soon after.
Captain Paras Khadka (5), Subash Khakurel (9) and Sharad Vesawkar (9) departed soon making it 47/5 and Nepal seemed to be in trouble chasing a low total.
Pradeep Airee topscored with 34 not out to help Nepal reach a lowly target in 25 overs. ICC Photo/Peter Lim
However, Pradeep Airee scored 34 in 25 balls with 4 fours and a six in his aggression while Shakti Gauchan played as calmly as he always does scoring 18 in 56 balls with a couple of fours to take Nepal to victory safely.
Mahboob was pick of bowler for his 3 wickets.
“Amrit got the ball rolling for us with his fine performance and we took advantage of the early wicket to unsettle the opponent,” captain Paras commented after the match. “It was not one of the easiest wickets to bat on but the middle order guys kept their cool and went on to win the match for us.”
Nepal will play Tanzania on Sept 4.
In other matches of the day, Denmark got the better of Tanzania in a low-scoring match at the Kinrara Academy Oval ground, after opting to bat first, Carsten Pedersen (48) top-scored for Denmark in its total of 224. Aftab Ahmed (43) used the long handle to good effect in the end overs.
Kassim Nassoro (4-40) and Khalil Rehemtulla (3-39) were the key wicket-takers for Tanzania.
In its chase, Tanzania lost wickets at regular intervals and it made just 136 for seven off 50 overs. Nasibu Mapunda (32) was the top scorer for Tanzania. Lejf Slebsager (3-24) and Bobby Chawla (2-19) were the key wicket-takers for Denmark.
At the Bayuemas Oval, USA after being asked to bat first posted 289 for five in its 50 overs. Sushil Nadkarni (73: 96b, 8×4, 1×6) and Steven Taylor (62: 74b, 9×4, 1×6) added 110 runs for the opening wicket, while Timroy Allen then struck an unbeaten 73 off 43 balls with four boundaries and six sixes to help USA finish on a high.
Malaysia in its reply lost wickets at regular intervals. Only Suharril Fetri (60: 113b, 3×4) managed to add a good amount of runs to the total but his efforts were in vain with Malaysia finally ending at 219 for eight wickets in 50 overs. Allen backed up his blitzkrieg with the bat with a spell of two for 35 and earned the player of the match award for it.