Sports
Nepal suffer six-wicket loss
Nepal lost their first match of the ACC Emerging Nations Cup by six wickets to Under-23 team of Pakistan at the Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium Academy Ground in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Monday.Nepal lost their first match of the ACC Emerging Nations Cup by six wickets to Under-23 team of Pakistan at the Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium Academy Ground in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Monday.
Put into bat after skipper Gyanendra Malla lost the toss, Nepal found it hard scoring against the Test-playing nation and could only post a lowly 180-9 in their allotted 50 overs. In reply, opener Imam-ul-Haq slammed an unbeaten century to almost single-handedly guide Pakistan to victory. Pakistan replied with 183-4 in 45.1 overs.
Nepal are playing the event with a depleted squad as three of their first-team players—veteran spinners Basanta Regmi and Shakti Gauchan along with paceman Sompal Kami—were rested following the ICC World Cricket League Championship double header against Kenya earlier this month. Regular skipper Paras Khadka also opted out of the tournament as he is yet to recover from an appendicitis operation he had in mid-February. In their absence, left-arm spinner Sushan Bhari and medium pacer Deepesh Shrestha made the senior team debut for Nepal.
Nepal lost three quick wickets of skipper Malla (2), Sagar Pun (4) and Dipendra Singh Airee (14) to be 42-3 by the 15th over. A fine 79-run fourth wicket partnership between Sunil Dhamala and vice-captain Sharad Vesawkar resurrected the Nepali innings.
But once Dhamala was dismissed by Usama Mir in the 38th over, Nepal lost their way and crumbled to 180. Dhamala scored 43 from a painstaking 125 balls, while Vesawkar made 38 from 59 deliveries. Binod Bhandari chipped in with 24 runs late on give some respectability to the Nepali total. Pakistani paceman Ghulam Mudassar was the chief tormentor as he returned with figures of 5-26 from his 10 overs. Mir took two, while Zafar Gohar and Bilal Asif claimed one wicket apiece.
Pakistan opener Haq made light work of their chase, hitting nine boundaries in his unbeaten 104 runs off 138 balls. Hammad Azam also remained unbeaten on 22 runs. Pakistan lost four wickets but were never in trouble. Leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane and part-time off-spinner Malla bagged two wickets each for Nepal.
Nepal play U-23 Bangladesh team on Tuesday before taking on Hong Kong on Thursday in their Group ‘B’ matches. Top two teams from each of the two pools qualify for the semi-finals. The eight-team tournament features four U-23 Test-playing nations India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh along with ICC Associate members Afghanistan, Nepal, Malaysia and Hong Kong.