Following Prithu Baskota’s early strikes with the ball, Pradeep Airee struck a half-century and Binod Bhandari played an important cameo with the bat as Nepal registered a six-wicket victory over the UAE on Tuesday to reach the final of ACC T20 Cup for the first time.
Nepal, which had crashed out from the group stage in the first two editions and reached the semifinals in the last edition, continued its sublime form to set up a final clash with Afghanistan in the ongoing fourth edition of the ACC T20 Cup.
The title clash with Afghanistan at the TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur on Wednesday will be Nepal’s third consecutive final in major tournaments. Nepal had won the ICC World Cricket League Division 4 in Malaysia in September 2012 and shared the ACC Trophy Elite title with the UAE in October 2012 after the final match ended in a tie.
However, Nepal moved a step ahead beating the giant associate nation at the TU Cricket Ground on Tuesday.
The UAE elected to bat and put up a modest total of 133/9 in the allotted 20 overs as Baskota claimed three wickets and Basanta Regmi and Shakti Gauchan dismissed two batsmen each. Sanjam Regmi took one wicket.
Chasing the total, Nepal met the target losing four wickets with five balls remaining as Airee scored 58 runs off 57 balls and Bhandari smashed an unbeaten 16 runs off six balls during his cameo with the bat toward the end.
It is Nepal’s third highest successful run-chase in T20 format. Earlier, Nepal had chased 157 runs against Bahrain in 2009 and 149 runs against Kenya in 2012.
“Prithu (Baskota) gave us the desired start in bowling and Pradeep (Airee) and other batsmen clicked at the right time,” Nepali skipper Paras Khadka summed up the match.
“Everybody is taking leadership and every member is capable of doing well. We did the same today and we beat them comfortably,” said Nepali team coach Pubudu Dassanayake.
On Tuesday, Nepal opened the bowling with pacer Amrit Bhattarai but skipper Paras Khadka introduced spinner Baskota in the very second over and the strategy paid off. Sharad Vesawkar caught Bakhtiyar Hamid (five runs) at backward point off Baskota. Baskota then claimed Amjad Ali´s wicket as Gyanendra Malla caught Ali at long-on in his second over. The UAE was at 15/2 in 3.1 overs.
Opener Abdul Shakoor (18 runs off 27 balls) and Swapnil Patil put up a 31-run partnership for the third wicket, the highest partnership of the UAE innings.
Patil and Roshan Mustafa (16 runs) shared a 29-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Patil contributed the highest 37 runs off 33 balls for the UAE. As wickets kept falling at regular intervals, the UAE was teetering at 90/6 in 15.1 overs.
Mohammad Azam (24 runs off 15 balls) and Amjad Javed (12 runs off 15 balls) put up another 31-run partnership for the seventh wicket.
The UAE added 39 runs in the last three overs to post a competitive total of 133/9. As Nepali bowlers dominated the show, the UAE struck only one six in the entire innings.
In reply, Nepali openers Subash Khakurel (22 runs off 37 balls) and Airee put up a 61-run opening stand. Khakurel was stumped in the third ball of the 10th over bowled by Ahmed Raza. Airee then put up a 39-run second-wicket partnership with Gyanendra Malla, who added 20 runs off 18 balls with a four and a six.
Airee, who got dropped twice by the UAE fielders when he was at 12 and 38, smashed five fours and two sixes to reach 58. It was the third T20 half-century for Airee at the international level and the second in the ongoing tournament. He was also stumped in the first ball of the 18th over bowled by Fayyaz Ahmed.
Ahmed then dismissed Basanta Regmi in the next ball. Nepali supporters were nervous when Regmi, who was promoted in the batting order to accelerate the innings, returned to the pavilion. Nepal was in need of 18 runs from the last two overs.
However, Bhandari came to the rescue hitting two sixes off Arshad Ali in the 19th over.
“He (Binod) proved he is a good batsman and can click any time. When I was batting alongside him, I was telling him that we have faith in him and he delivered,” said Nepali skipper Khadka about his batting partner.
Following Bhandari’s blistering knock, Khadka (12 runs off 8 balls) scored the winning runs in the first ball of the last over to set up a final clash with Afghanistan.
Earlier, Afghanistan thrashed Hong Kong by seven wickets in the first semifinal on Tuesday. Afghanistan bundled out Hong Kong for 109 runs in 19 overs and reached 112/3 in 17.1 overs.