 |
| Kathmandu, Tuesday March 11, 2003 Falgun 27, 2059. |
|
Nepal humble Maldives to lift title
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March 10 : Nepal bagged the Emerging Nations Cricket tournament’s title
following a thumping 10-wicket win over Maldives in the final played at the Tribhuvan
University cricket ground on Monday.
Maldives won the toss and elected to bat first but a career-best five-wicket haul by Binod
Das
wrapped their innings in 34 runs. Nepal’s opening pair Mehaboob Alam and Paresh
Lohani took
just 7.1 overs to reach the target without any damage.
Maldives total of 34 runs is the lowest total made by any international team against
Nepal.
Bhutan scored 44 runs against Nepal before this match in the tournament.
"This is a good tournament for boosting confidence," said Nepali coach and
former Sri Lankan
Test player Roy Dias. "I was a bit worried before the tournament as it was the first
time our
national team is participating at our home during my tenure. But except the first match
everything
went on our way," he added.
In the same time Dias also told that the target is still not achieved. "If we play
matches against
local clubs of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, we can get the real picture of
our
strength and weakness. We should not get carried away with the success of this tournament
since the opponents were inexperienced," he added.
In contrast, Dias’ counterpart Faiz Samad of Maldives blamed condition for their
humiliating
defeat. "We used to play cricket at hot temperature and at matting wicket instead of
turf so things
went a bit difficult for our players. And full credit goes to Alam (Mehaboob) and Das
(Binod) as our
batting never clicked against Nepal in the tournament," said a disappointed Samad.
Nepali pacer trio Alam, Raju Khadka and Das never gave any chance to Maldives players to
play
strokes freely at the crease. Maldives batsmen played cautiously in the first 10 overs as
they
scored 18 runs without losing wickets in the match that started one hour late.
But wickets started tumbling when skipper Raju Khadka removed topscorer Amhed Hussain for
nine. Maldives lost three wickets within 8 balls when the score was 18. A brilliant throw
from
long-on by Sanjam Regmi saw another opener Ali Azim depart. Das struck in his first over
clean
bowling skipper Moosa Kaleem for no score.
Bardan Chalise’s direct throw triggered the dismissal of Abdulla Shafeev and then
Afzal Faiz
lofted a catch to Sandeep Shrestha at the slip off Das when the score was 22. Nepal’s
most
successful bowler Alam scalped after changing his bowling end in his second spell and Das
sent
two Maldives tailenders to the pavilion to wrap up Maldives innings in just 22.4 overs. No
Maldives
batsmen could reach double figure mark in their batting innings.
Chasing a very small target, Nepal got off to a flyer as big-hitting Alam took the charge
and
smashed four boundaries in his 20-ball 24-run knock. Lohani just rotated the strike and
remained
unbeaten at 11.
Binod Das was adjudged man of the match while Mehaboob Alam was declared man of the
series. Crown Price Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev distributed shields and certificates to the
winners
and participants. Along with Nepal and Maldives, Bhutan was the other team to participate
at the
triangular tournament supported by Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and co-ordinated by Cricket
Association of Nepal. |
