Sports
Nepal fall prey to Tigers
Nepal suffered the second successive defeat during the Blind World Cup Cricket losing to Bangladesh by four wickets at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday.Nepal suffered the second successive defeat during the Blind World Cup Cricket losing to Bangladesh by four wickets at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday.
The result comes a day after Pakistan handed them a nine-wicket defeat in their first match at the Jinnah Stadium in Gujranwala. Put into bat first after Bangladesh won the toss, Nepal scored 234-9 in their allotted 40 overs. Bangladesh surpassed the target for the loss of six wickets in 33.3 overs.
Nepal captain Kirtan Shrestha Duwal was key in helping his team post a respectable total on the board after Ramesh Bahadur Baniya and Padam Badaila, who hit half centuries against Pakistan on Tuesday, failed to fire on Wednesday. Baniya could only score eight while Badaila managed 30. Skipper Duwal, who was later named the most valuable player, stepped up to score 66 runs while Khimananda Gaire also chipped in with 34 runs. Khorshed Alam took two and Arif Ullah claimed one wicket for Bangladesh.
In reply, man-of-the-match Mehmud Rashid scored an unbeaten 60 off 61 balls to steer Bangladesh to victory with more than six overs to spare. Ashiqur Rahman also hit 45 and Abdul Malek 38 runs for the winning side. Bharat Thapa took two while Khimananda and Kirten claimed one wicket each for Nepal.
Nepal fielded four B1 (totally blind) and B3 (partially sighted) category players each as well as three B2 (partially blind) cricketers in the match. Top four teams after the league round of the six-team tournament will qualify for the semi-finals.
With hopes off making it into the semi-finals all but over Nepal next play Sri Lanka on Saturday.