Sports
Blind Cricket World Cup: Nepal’s semi-final hopes dashed
Nepal’s hopes of entering the semi-finals of the Blind Cricket World Cup ended on Saturday after crashing to a huge 340-run defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in Ajman, United Arab Emirates.Nepal’s hopes of entering the semi-finals of the Blind Cricket World Cup ended on Saturday after crashing to a huge 340-run defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
Nepal needed to register a victory to remain in contention for the semi-finals but their hopes fizzled out in the first innings alone at Oval Cricket Grounds after Sri Lanka posted a mammoth 394-5 in the 40-over game. Nepal, in reply, were bundled out for 154 runs in 33.4 overs.
Nepal have gone on to lose their three matches in a row in the six-team World Cup. The top four teams after the round robin league will make it to the semi-finals. Nepal had previously lost to Bangladesh and Pakistan and will now meet India and Australia in their last two matches.
Dimuthu Ravindra and Chandana Deshpriya did the most of the damage as the two batsmen hit centuries to punish Nepal’s wayward bowling. Ravindra made 170 runs and Deshpriya scored 119. Priyantha Kumara chipped in 69 runs. Nepal also gifted 53 extra runs to the Lankans and paid 12 runs penalty for bowling slow.
Durga Dutta Paudel and Surya Bhattarai took one wicket each for Nepal who played the match without skipper Kritan Shrestha Duwal. After Duwal got injured, Padam Bahadur Badela was handed the captaincy for the game.
Nepal began their chase on a positive note after openers Sunil Thapa Magar and Ramesh Baniya added 53 runs for the first wicket. But poor running between wickets sparked a terrible collapse before the team failed to play the complete overs. Badri Chaulagain top scored for Nepal with a 47-ball 37 hitting three boundaries.
Thapa Magar made 25 and Baniya notched up 22 as Nepal’s next best scorers. Nepal had six run outs in their innings. Ravindra, Deshpriya, Damith Sandaruwan and Dinesh Mathugam took a wicket each for Sri Lanka. Nepal will meet India at the Eden Garden grounds on Sunday.