With a below-par performance in batting and fielding, Nepal lost to UAE by 6 wickets in the ACC Twenty20 Cup at the TU Cricket Ground.
The heart-breaking defeat was a result of Nepal’s own fault and UAE’s thorough performance all-round which helped them to outplay Nepal in every department of the game.
UAE restricted Nepal to 95/9 in 20 overs and successfully chased the target in 18.3 overs losing four wickets.
Team Nepal. Photo by PhotoEverest.com
Nepal’s unconventional decision to bat first after winning the toss looked like a good one in early overs when Subash Khakurel launched attacks. Nepal reached 18 in 2 overs before hesitant Anil Mandal (5) failed to reach his ground and a direct throw undid him.
Subash’s weakness against spin was evident in next over, when Shadeep Silva spun a ball through his back-foot defense. He scored 14 off 12 balls. Silva also claimed the prized wicket of Gyanendra Malla next over trapping him plumb in front the stumps.
Captain Paras Khadka walked in through big roar from the crowd but after scoring two, he tried a big one and was caught at boundary. The crowd went silent for a few seconds.
UAE celebrate a wicket. Photo by PhotoEverest.com
Sharad Vesawkar, who replaced Pradeep Airee in the team, looked like shouldering big responsibility with a few skillful shots but was soon gone giving giving away a simple catch to Abdul Rehman off Ahmed Raza. He scored 7 off 24 balls.
The middle order, Mehboob Alam (17 off 12), Prithu Baskota (10 off 19) and Binod Bhandari (14 off 24) tried to revive the innings but could not do anything more than adding a few runs.
Man-of-the-match Ahmed Raza bagged three wickets while Silva and Rohan Mustafa claimed two wickets each.
UAE was chasing a low score, and Nepal’s hopes rested on brilliant fielding and bowling performance. Nepal needed to turn half-chances into success; but the opposite happened.
Sharad dropped Amjad Ali twice – once a very difficult chance at the boundary and second an easy sky-holed ball. Ali departed soon scoring five runs off Bhattarai as Sanjam Regmi took the catch.
Faizan Asif scored 13 runs before Basant Regmi claimed him. UAE batsmen played patiently scoring runs and were cruising towards easy victory when Amrit took a couple of wickets to give a faint hope.
Powerful hit. Photo by PhotoEverest.com
Bhattarai claimed Shaiman Anwar (run-a-ball 33) and Khurram Khan (10 off 22 balls) in successive balls as UAE went down from 65/2 to 65/4. Anwar was caught at long-off by Sanjam and Khan gave an easy catch to Gyanendra.
Nepal’s below-par fielding performance was exemplified in 16th over. Sharad and Prithu threw balls at free stumps without backups and gave away six overthrows just before a four was scored from within Sharad diving reach. Spectators were raged and started moving out throwing plastic bottles onto the ground. Police sprang into action, chased down spectators out of the ground but not before they were able to threw a few stones into the arena.
Vikrant Shetty (unbeaten 10 off 14) and Abdul Rehman (unbeaten 19 off 22) easily guided the UAE to victory in 18.3 overs after the match resumed.
Nepal will next meet Kuwait on Tuesday at the same venue.
Brief scorecard: Nepal: 96/9 in 20 overs (S.Silva 2-18, A. Raza 3-12, R.Mustafa 2-13) lost to UAE: 99/4 off 18.3 overs (S. Anwar 33, A. Bhattarai 3-25) by 6 wickets. MoM: Ahmed Raza (UAE)
Cricket Nepal (cricket.com.np) provided live scores and commentary for the match. Click ‘Replay’ below to read the live commentaries.