Avinash Karn’s fierce bowling and Amit Shrestha’s blistering 70 runs off 33 balls against Qatar on Sunday sealed second consecutive victory for Nepali U-19 cricket team in the ACC U-19 Elite Cup. Nepal convincingly beat Qatar by 9 wickets at the Bayuemas Oval, Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
Qatar won the toss and elected to bat first. Nepal bundled out Qatar for 93 runs in 36.3 overs as Karn claimed four wickets. He bowled 7.3 overs and gave away 26 runs to claim four wickets. Likewise, Sushant Bhari claimed two wickets with a bowling figure of 6-3-11-2. Skipper Bhuwan Karki and Nischal Pandey dismissed a batsman each. Two of the Qatar batsmen were run out.
Uzair Amir (24 runs off 67 balls) was the highest scorer for Qatar. Abdullah Mohammad (16 runs off 36 balls), Syed Safwan Shah (14 runs off 19 balls) and Jahangir Ehsan (12 runs off 7 balls) were the other major contributors for Qatar.
Chasing the low total, Nepal reached 94/1 in 10.5 overs. Shrestha put up a 56-run opening partnership with Nischal Pandey (12 runs off 26 balls). Shrestha, then, put up an unbeaten 38-run partnership with Harishankar Shah (8 runs off 7 balls) to seal the match. Shrestha clobbered 11 boundaries and a six to score 70 runs.
Nepali vice-captain Karn was adjudged man-of-the-match for his magical bowling performance.
Nepal had defeated Kuwait by 84 runs on Friday in its first match of the ACC U-19 Elite Cup. Nepal will take on Bahrain in the third group-stage match on Monday.