Nepal has slumped to its second consecutive defeat in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers. And the defeat has been as bad as the first one. This time it was against Scotland, who managed a 90-run victory at Queenstown Events Center in New Zealand on Thursday.
Nepal was chasing a target of 250, after putting in Scotland to bat. The Nepali batting, in absence of captain Paras Khadka and wicketkeeper/opening batsman Subash Khakurel, never got going and managed mere 159. Paras was rested due to back pain and Subash is yet to recover fully from fever.
Earlier, on Monday, UAE had thrashed Nepal by 102 runs.
Nepali players & coach after loss to Scotland. Photo: Devendra Subedi
Nepali batting suffered an early jolt in the very first ball, when opener Sagar Pun was caught by Matthew Cross off Rob Taylor.
The other opener Anil Mandal managed 10 off 17 deliveries. Nepal lost first three wickets with only 27 runs on board, with 43 overs of the innings still remaining. Shakti Gauchan, who was promoted to bat at number four – following his 37-run knock against UAE – did not bother the scorers and was out for a duck.
Stand in skipper Gyanendra Malla contributed 34 and that remained as the highest score for Nepali batsman. The number three batsman hit six fours in his knock of 61 balls. Sharad Vesawkar made 30 off 64.
Sharad was the only batsman to get some partnership going, forging 33-run stand with Gyanendra for the fourth wicket and 36-run stand with Prithu Baskota (21) for fifth wicket. The other notable contribution came from Basanta Regmi, who remained unbeaten for 20 off 31. Nepal’s last three wickets fell for 18 runs in five overs, and the side was dismissed for 159 in 46.1 overs.
Iain Wardlaw claimed three wickets of Nepal followed by two wickets each of Rob Taylor and Majid Haq. Safyaan Sharif and Kyle Coetzer share one wicket apiece.
Nepal’s fans at Queenstown, New Zealand during match against Scotland. Photo: Devendra Subedi (Facebook)
Earlier, Freddie Coleman scored an unbeaten 64 off 68 as Scotland put up 249 for 7. Coleman hit four fours and a six. Opener Calum MacLeod contributed with 46 off 48. However, Scotland innings wasn’t as easy as it looks on the scorecard.
Nepali bowlers had kept it tight till almost the fag end of the first innings. At one point, Scotland had 7 wickets down for 190 runs, with less than 6 overs to go. But late charge from Safyaan Sharif, who scored 25 off 17, took the target to run-a-ball.
Twenty-three year old Coleman was pleased that his team was able to bounce back from its earlier loss to record such a decisive victory.
Scotland’s Freddie Coleman receives man of the match award. Photo: Devendra Subedi
“It was nice to get some runs and we got off to a good start, but it was quite tricky during the middle overs with the spinners. The pitch has been played on a bit so it is a bit slow which made it difficult to hit the ball into the gaps, but it was nice to kind of hold my patience a little bit and score a few at the end.”
The last four overs cost Nepal 51 runs when Gyanendra Malla relied on his spinners and didn’t hand over the ball to his best bowler whose figure was reading 7-0-21-3. Sompal Kami eventually bowled 49th leaking 14 runs and ending with figure of 8-0-35-3. Sagar claimed two wickets followed by one wicket each from Shakti and Basanta.
Nepal is in Group A and will play against Hong Kong on Sunday (Jan 19) and Canada on Tuesday (Jan 21) in other matches of the group. Top three teams will secure berth for the Super Six round.