Pulchowk College enteres quarter final

Post Report

KATHMANDU, May 20 - Pulchowk Engineering College entered into the quarter-finals of the 2nd vice-chancellor Running Shield cricket tournament, defeating Campaign College by 5 wickets on the last encounter of the first round held at Tribhuvan university cricket ground, Kirtipur today.

Campaign’s skipper elected to bat first, after winning the toss, faced an early shock when the first wicket fell with just nine run score only. The second wicket added useful 53 runs that looked like the Campaign heading for a mammoth target. After then, wickets fell in regular intervals from one end as Kuldeep Malla did the bulk of scoring from opposite end. Malla tolerated every attack of Pulchowk’s bowlers, making a patience 60 run not out off 108 deliveries that consisted just a maiden boundary. Rest of the batsmen neither added any quick runs, nor remained at the crease to support Malla, that limit Campaign to149 for the loss of eight wickets in full quota of 40 overs.

Pulchowk bowlers bowled in good line and length but lacked the caliber of wicket taking instinct. Pace man Sameer Bariyait was the only bowler who took two wickets in allotted eight over spell, conceding just 26 runs. Rajiv Shrestha, Abinash Nepal and Gopal Pradhan claimed one wicket each. Pulchowk side, with fine ground fielding, showed the commitment in the field, sending three batsmen to the pavilion being run out.

Pulchowk also suffered with the fall of wickets in regular intervals, lacking the massive and useful partnership. Rajiv Shrestha made a handy unbeaten 27 runs in the last session of the play, whereas opener Abinash Nepal scored useful 19 runs. Number three batsman, Aashih Pathak also contributed 18 runs. It was the extra 50 runs which supported Pulchowk to enter the quarter- finals in 38.2 overs. The match was one of the low scoring batting performance of the tournament since only 7 boundaries were driven in the game that both teams scored overall three hundred runs gross.

Campaign’s Sanket Dangal and Madav Bista claimed one wicket each as rest of the three batsmen became the victim of run out. Campaign’s Kuldeep Malla was declared Man of the Match for his brilliant knock of unbeaten 60 runs.

Nepal Commerce Campus will take on Bishwa Bhasa College in the first quarter final of the tournament, tomorrow.

Herculean Task Awaiting in Canada

By Purushottam Kattel

KATHMANDU, May 20 - The National Sports Council finalized the list of the 14- member Nepali Cricket squad to participate in the ICC Trophy Tournament to be conducted by International Cricket Council (ICC). The ICC has already released details of the forthcoming ICC Trophy tournament to be held in Toronto, Canada from the 28th June to 17th July 2001.

The event is a passport to the next World Cup, with three of the 24 ICC Associate member countries competing in the tournament gaining automatic entry to the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. These will include both finalists and the winner of the qualifying final.

Countries have been ranked and will be split into two divisions, one to 12, 13 to 24, and there will be two rounds of matches. At the end of the second stage a league will be formed based on the combined points achieved from previous fixtures. Teams in first and second place contest the final, while third and fourth play in the World Cup qualifying final. Both finalists and the winner of the qualifier go forward to the 2003
World Cup.

ICC Associates competing in the Trophy are: Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, East & Central Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia), Fiji, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Holland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, USA and the West Africa Conference (Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone).

Nepali cricket has made a constant and consistent headway in the past two years and is already toward making a place in the international arena. Experts are of the view that Nepal is a barn-rising team in the continent, surrounded by the bigwig Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and now, Bangladesh. Former president of ICC, Jag Mohan Dalmia, had projected Nepal as a team that can compete in One Day International cricket, on the occasion of Bangladesh’s entry into the Test Matches last October.

Nepal is proceeding to Canada with its full-fledged power to come up with the Trophy that will open the door to play in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. Though some seniors did not find their place in the final squad, assistant team coach Arun Aryal opined that the absence of senior but out-of-form players would not make any difference to the show of the team. Aryal further stressed that "We have got all sorts of attack in our book of cricket, which will prove fruitful for the team, and the youngsters are remarkable with their commitments".

Among the newcomers, however, Munik Kumar Shrestha and Sanjam Regmi have already represented Nepal in other levels of cricket, whereas Kush Gurung is the only who is going to wear his first international cap in Canada. Ecstatic Gurung in a confident tone said, "We are preparing ourselves play not just for formality, but to uplift the position of Nepali cricket and we should win this Trophy by playing at our best."

Among the 14 members of the team, Nepal has four genuine all-rounders: Raju Khadka, Jaya Prakash Sarraf, Kush Gurung and Paras Lunia. These players are supposed to augment the middle order of the team. Kiran Agrawal, Dipendra Chaudhari, Paresh Lohani, Munik Kumar Shrestha and Birendra Bikram Shah will handle the top orders’ place of the batting lineup. Even though Vice-captain Ganesh Bahadur Shahi will stand behind the stumps, he is also a useful batsman. Jaya Prakash Sarraf, Sanjam Regmi, Paras Lunia and Raj Kumar Pradhan will hound the opponents at the Canadian pitch by their variations of spin attacks. Medium pacer Binod Das and Mehaboob Alaam will open the bowling attack in tandem with their right and left arm combination. Kush Gurung also can bowl well, being a part timer pace attack.

If we look at the history of One-Day International Cricket on the Canadian pitches, most of the spinners always bowled in perfect rhythms, getting more awkward bounces. The bowling action and the process of turning the ball vary among the Nepali spinners. Paras Lunia bowls left arm orthodox spin, which will trouble more to the right-handed batsmen. Raj Kumar Pradhan is a genuine right arm leg spinner along with all-rounder Jaya Prakash Sarraf, who played a key role of a specialist spin bowler in the domestic level games. All rounder Raju Khadka is expected to damage the opponents by showing his all rounding skills at the crease. Young right arm spinner Sanjam Regmi will torment the opponents by his off-spin bowling attack.

Speaking about the balance of the team, Jaya Kumar Shah, the President of Cricket Association of Nepal said, " Though, the entire credit goes to the selection committee, being an outsider I can guess that, even No.11 batsman in our team can bat well and all the members of the side, except the wicket keeper, can bowl with class to the rivals". So far as the fielding of Nepali team is concerned, Nepal has got great scope for the improvement since it suffered by poor fielding in the past that proved a hurdle for them to come up with their original potentialities. Munik Kumar Shrestha, the newcomer of the side, is hopeful about the fielding of the team. He said, "The Team has realized what it made mistakes in earlier years and now we are also coming through the special training to improve the fielding and I am hopeful that it will not repeat".

Cricket is the second most popular sport after football in this Himalayan country. Experts are of the view that cricket is the only game in which Nepal can compete in the international level, so people will watch with keen interest how Nepal will show up abroad in a bigwig like the ICC Cup.