Nepal´s disastrous run at the ICC World Cup Qualifiers has continued. Team Nepal faced its fifth successive defeat on Sunday, going down against The Netherlands by seven wickets in the in the seventh place playoff match held at the Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui in New Zealand.
Nepal was put in to bat first, and it posted a meager 171 for 9. The Dutch team chased down the target with more than 18 overs and 7 wickets to spare.
Nepal lost its first wicket very cheaply, as has been the norm in the tournament, today as well, with the score at 16 in the 7th over. That began a spate of wicket falls, and half the side was back in the pavilion by the time score was 54 (in the 20th over). Of the 5 wickets to fall, Gyanendra Malla and Prithu Baskota failed to open scoring. Of the top 5 batsmen, Paras Khadka, with 29 off 38, was the only one to reach double figures.
Nepal captain Paras Khadka walks back to the pavilion after scoring 29. Netherlands defeated Nepal by 7 wickets. Photo: Devendra Subedi
Sharad Vesawkar, with 42 off 90 deliveries, remained the highest scorer for Nepal. Shakti Gauchan provided some late order resistance, coming in at 9 and scoring 26. The best thing for Nepal was that the team lasted all 50 overs. There were 16 fours and a six (from Paras Khadka) from Nepali batsmen, which highlights the percentage of dot balls faced by them and the domination from Dutch bowlers.
19-year old Vivian Kingma was at miserly best for the Dutch, giving away 18 runs in his 10-over spell and nailing down Gyanendra and Paras. Ahsan Malik took three wickets in 4 overs.
The 172 run target was never going to be challenging for the Netherlands, and it proved not to be so. Apart from losing Stephan Myburgh early on, there were no surprises for the Dutch team. The other opener, Eric Szwarczynski, scored 56 and ensured there were no hiccups for his team. Nepali team’s misery ended in the 32nd over as the Netherlands overhauled the target.
After the match, Nepali captain Paras Khadka summed up his team’s disappointment. “We haven’t played well at all and even today we were outplayed. We are not putting the effort that we are known to put at difficult times,” said Paras, adding, “Everybody is trying but performance is not coming for us. In other words we are playing much below our standards.”
Talking about the last match left for Nepal, against Uganda, coach Pubudu Dassanayake said, “We are desperately looking for a win. We obviously want to finish on a high.”
This is the first time Nepal lost five matches in a row in a tournament. Earlier, Nepal was defeated by the UAE, Scotland, Hong Kong and Canada in the group stage of World Cup Qualifiers.
This was also Nepal´s sixth straight defeat in the 50-over format, if the loss to Afghanistan in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup was also taken into account.
With inputs from Devendra Subedi, who’s in New Zealand.