Left-arm medium pacer Avinash Karn grabbed eight wickets including a hat-trick to knock down hapless Bahrain by 196 runs at the Bayuemas Oval, Kuala Lumpur on Monday to guide Nepal to the semifinals of the ACC U-19 Elite Cup.
Batting first after winning the toss, Nepal team posted 259/9 in the allotted 50 overs.
Vice-captain of the Nepali side, Karn rattled Bahrain chase for 260 as he took four wickets in his second over, including a hat-trick in last three balls. Karn finished with eight wickets, without needing any assistance from fielders. Four of his wickets were bowled, while other four were trapped lbw.
Karn became the first Nepali bowler to complete hat-trick at the age group tournaments of international level. In over-all, he became the second Nepali bowler to complete hat-trick at the international level. Earlier, Shakti Gauchan had taken hat-trick against Denmark in ICC World T20 Qualifiers held in the UAE last year.
Karn claimed the first wicket in the second ball of the third over of the innings as he trapped lbw to Ikram Nadeem. He gave away a run in the third ball and then completed the hat-trick in the last three balls of the over. He trapped lbw to Adeel Nasir in the fourth ball, bowled Jayan Anandhakrishnan and again trapped Ubaid Minhas lbw to complete hat-trick.
Karn’s bowling figure of 8-2-24-8 is the second best bowling figure of Nepali bowlers in the U-19 age group. Rahul Viswakarma’s bowling figure of 6.5-0-15-8 against Thailand in the last edition of the ACC U-19 Elite Cup is the best bowling figure of the Nepali bowlers in the age group.
Karn was adjudged man-of-the-match for his magical bowling performance.
Five of the Bahrain batsmen returned to pavilion without scoring, while only two reached double figures. Akshay Krisha, with 22, was the highest scorer for Bahrain, as Lasith Lal made 17. Captain Bhuwan Karki and Rahul Pratap Singh had claimed a wicket each.
Earlier, Nepal innings had not started too well as it had lost its first wicket in 28 runs. Captain Bhuwan Karki was the highest scorer for Nepal, with 83 off 63 balls, which included eight boundaries and three sixes. Bibhatsu Thapa scored 44, as Nirmal Thapa put up 25.
Openers Ameet Shrestha (22 runs off 12 balls) and Nischal Pandey (16 runs off 40 balls) were the other major contributors for Nepal. Bahrain bowled 32 extras. Lalith Lal was the peak of the Bahrain bowler as he picked three wickets while Anandhakrishnan and Adeel Nasir claimed two wickets each.
Nepal’s score was pushed to more than five an over, due to some quick scoring towards the end. Last five overs saw Nepali colts scoring just over 50 runs.
Following the 84-run victory over Kuwait and nine-wicket win over Qatar in the first two matches, the convincing victory over Bahrain has secured semifinal berth for Nepal from the group B of the tournament. In the group of five teams, Nepal and Malaysia have equal six points from three matches. However, Nepal is on the top of the table with better net run rate. Kuwait is on the third place with two points from three matches. Bahrain and Qatar are yet to open their account.
Nepal and Malaysia will lock horns on Wednesday to decide the winner of the group.