Nepal continued its impressive run beating Kuwait by seven wickets in the last league match of the ACC Trophy Elite 2008 on Wednesday. With the win, Nepal topped Group B with eight points and will now meet UAE in the semifinal.
Nepal was playing to become the Group B leader. With the fourth win in as many matches, Nepal is atop Group B ahead of Hong Kong. From Group A, Afghanistan and UAE qualified to the semifinals and the semifinal matchup is identical to that of 2006 with Nepal playing UAE.
Nepal’s chase for Kuwait’s paltry 103 began with its best opening stand in the event with Kanishka Chaugai and Mehboob Alam adding 20 runs in 10 overs. But Mehboob (7) went soon and Dipendra Chaudhary (3) could make any impact playing his first match of the tour.
Kanishka once again got a start scoring 19 but then was trapped leg-before by Javed Mohammad who finished with two wickets. Sarad Vesawkar and Paras Khadka added unbeaten 50 runs for fourth wicket to take Nepal to victory in 29 overs. Sarad scored 28 runs in 80 balls with a four while Nepal’s leading scorer in the event vice-captain Paras Khadka got 26 off 41 with a boundary.
Earlier, Kuwait never recovered after early blow of Mehboob Alam who took three wickets in the opening spell to down the gulf country to 17/3. Spinners Shakti Gauchan, Raj Kumar Pradhan and Sanjam Regmi were unplayable at the condition. Shakti picked up three wickets giving away five runs while Sanjam gave away two runs in his six overs.
Captain Binod Das picked up two wickets in successive balls in the tenth over. Mehboob too was on hat-trick on third over but could not get the prize third ball wicket. Paras and Raj Kumar picked a wicket each.
For Kuwait, Mohd Murad (19), Saud Qamar (18), captain Hasim Mirza (16) and Abdul Rehman Liaqat (15) made some handy contributions to a paltry total. Kuwait finished fourth in Group B ahead of Qatar and will play Bahrain for seventh place playoff on Thursday.
| Round | League |
| Toss | Kuwait (bat) |
| Umpires | Sarath Kumara & Khalid Mahmood |
| MoM | Mehboob Alam |
| Points | Kuwait 0, Nepal 2 |
| Result | Nepal win by 7 wickets |
Kuwait Innings
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| J Roshamtha+ | b M Alam | 11 | 14 | 2 | 0 | |
| N Malik | c D Chaudhary | b M Alam | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| M Hasan | lbw | b M Alam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| S Qamar | lbw | b SP Gauchan | 18 | 47 | 3 | 0 |
| M Mohammed | b B Das | 19 | 17 | 3 | 1 | |
| S Raza | c SP Gauchan | b B Das | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| H Mirza* | b P Khadka | 16 | 23 | 3 | 0 | |
| AR Liaqat | c B Das | b RK Pradhan | 15 | 63 | 1 | 0 |
| A Mohammed | b SP Gauchan | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| J Mohammed | lbw | b SP Gauchan | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| S Khalid | not out | 7 | 46 | 1 | 0 | |
| extras | (b0 lb5 w9 nb0) | 14 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 103 |
| FOW 1-5(N Malik) 2-6(M Hasan) 3-17(J Roshamtha) 4-48(M Mohammed) 5-48(S Raza )6-76(H Mirza) 7-76(S Qamar) 8-78(A Mohammed) 9-78(J Mohammed) 10-103(AR Liaqat) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| M Alam | 10 | 1 | 34 | 3 |
| B Das | 9 | 0 | 37 | 2 |
| P Khadka | 3 | 0 | 18 | 1 |
| SP Gauchan | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| S Regmi | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| RK Pradhan | 2.1 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
Nepal Innings
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| K Chaugai | lbw | b J Mohammed | 19 | 31 | 3 | 0 |
| M Alam | lbw | b A Mohammed | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| S Vesawkar | not out | 28 | 80 | 1 | 0 | |
| D Chaudhary | b J Mohammed | 3 | 14 | 0 | 0 | |
| P Khadka | not out | 26 | 43 | 1 | 0 | |
| extras | (b0 lb7 w14 nb1) | 22 | ||||
| TOTAL | 3 wickets for | 104 |
| FOW 1-20(M Alam) 2-48(K Chaugai) 3-54(D Chaudhary) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| A Mohammed | 4 | 0 | 12 | 1 |
| M Mohammed | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| J Mohammed | 10 | 0 | 18 | 2 |
| S Raza | 10 | 1 | 39 | 0 |
| H Mirza | 3 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| S Qamar | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |