Sports
Skipper Khadka steers Nepal to crushing win
Nepal skipper Paras Khadka slammed a magnificent century to open their tour of England with a 234-run drubbing of local team Hampshire Hogs in England on Saturday.Nepal skipper Paras Khadka slammed a magnificent century to open their tour of England with a 234-run drubbing of local team Hampshire Hogs in England on Saturday.
Nepal are in England for a triangular Twenty20 cricket tournament set for July 29 at the Lord’s. The one-day tri-series comprises of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the Netherlands and Nepal. Nepal then travel to the Netherlands for their first ever two-match One-Day International (ODI) series against the hosts set for August 1 and 3.
Nepal earned the coveted ODI status early this year after their eighth-place finish at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe. Before embarking on the historic ODI series, however, Nepal are playing the four tour matches against the local London teams. They then go for the T20 tri-series which has been officially approved as Twenty20 international. It will be Nepal’s second outing at the Lord’s since playing against the MCC two years ago to mark the 200-year relationship between Nepal and the United Kingdom.
In the first tour match on Saturday, Nepal scored a massive 362 runs in 50 overs and bowled out Hogs for 119 runs in 37.1 overs. Nepal lost openers Gyanendra Malla (5) and Subash Khakurel (11) cheaply to be reeling at 20-2 by the sixth over but Paras turned the game upside down with his whirlwind knock. The Nepal skipper slammed 161, his 106-ball knock included 19 boundaries and seven sixes.
Paras has three centuries to his name in official cricket tournament. He scored an unbeaten 106 against Kuwait during the 2012 ACC Trophy Elite in the United Arab Emirates(UAE) before hitting 103 during the 2016 World Cricket League Championship match against Namibia at the Tribhuvan University Stadium in Kirtipur. The last of his three centuries cam against the UAE when he struck an unbeaten 112 during the 2018 World Cricket League Division 2 final in Namibia.
When Paras was finally dismissed in the 38th over on Saturday, Nepal were destined for a mammoth total. Paras notably put on a 110-run stand for the fourth wicket with Dipendra Singh Airee to lift the Nepali team. Rohit Kumar Paudel also contributed a fluent 44 of 34 balls including five fours and a six, while Dipendra scored 37 0ff 46 balls. Aarif Sheikh (27), Karan KC (18), Sandeep Lamichhane (16) and Lalit Bhandari (16) also chipped in valuable runs to the total. Miles Covers and John Portal took three wickets each while James Wilkes Green claimed one wicket for the local team.
Hogs made a cautious start to their run chase creeping to 12 runs when Karan made the breakthrough having Alex Halliday caught by Subash in the sixth over. Halliday’s opening partner Tom Bouchar (22) and Harry Fisher (33) kept Nepal at bay for a while but the introduction of left-arm spinner Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi saw the local side crumble in no time staring with the wicket for Boucher.
Lalit Narayan returned with the figures of 5-34 in his 10 overs, while leg-spinner Sandeep bowled miserly, giving away just 18 runs for his two wickets. Dipendra also accounted for two Hogs wickets as the local side’s chase folded for just 119 runs. Nepal will now take on St Cross in the first of the two Twenty20 friendly on Monday before playing their second 50-over tour match against East Long XI two days later. They round up their tour games with another T20 match with East London Sharks on July 26.