Nepal’s dream run continues, enter semifinals

BY NARAYAN UPADHYAY

Kathmandu, Oct.12: Nepal continued its dream run at the Under-19 Asian Youth Cricket Cup as it recorded yet another comprehensive seven wicket victory against Singapore at the Tribhuwan University Ground today

The victory earned the hosts a place in semifinals of the eight-team competition, the winner of which will book a berth in the Youth World Cricket Cup to be held in New Zealand next year. Nepal, with today’s consecutive win became first team from Pool B to secure the semifinal’s place

In today’s match against city-state of Singapore, Nepalese youngsters, led by medium pace bowler captain Binod Das, justified their decision to field first. Captain Das today bowled excellently to dispatch four of Singaporean batsmen. Das later was judged the Himalayan Bank man of the match by the match referee, Hasan.

The Nepalese bowlers Das, medium pacer Pramod Basnet and Manjit Shrestha along with left arm spinner Lakpa Lama and Sanjam Regmi restricted Singapore to 114 (all out in 49.5 overs).

Singaporean openers Glen Meyer and N. Balakrishnan felt the heat of Nepal’s tight bowling and fielding and were runout in their attempt to steal singles. Despite opening cautiously, Singapore openers found it hard to score against the pace of Das and Pramod.

The Singapore middle orders also came under pressure from spinners Lakpa and Regmi and started to falter as diminutive Lakpa weaved a web and enticing to lose their wickets at the regular intervals. Apart from Rajesh Lakhawar who hit a patient 40 runs before falling to Das in cutter, no other Singapore batsmen could do much to speed up their scoring.

Nepalese openers, Subedi and Chaugai, showed some sparkle as both of them hit one four each in the first two overs.

However, a rush of blood in Subedi led the fall of his wicket in the second overs when the youngster tried to smash Prasanthan out of ground and opened his middle stump. Later young Subedi was seen crying over his folly.

The Subedi mistakes really opened Nepalese relatively shaky batting lineups and its batsmen’s propensity to commit unforced mistakes to lose wickets. For today’s win, Nepal must give credit for its luck as its four batsmen got plenty of life through squandered catches by Singaporean fielders.

Singaporeans dropped four chances against Chaugai (31) and two against Bardan (37). If the chances were not lost, Nepal could not have had the match easily. Singaporeans again dropped chances against Basudev Thapa(10 not out) while patient Shakti hit the winning runs for Nepal and remained not out at 15. Nepal will next face minnows Maldives in the third fixture at Engineering Institute Ground.

UAE into semis, Malaysia hope still alive

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct 12: United Arab Emirates became the first team from Pool A to sail into the semifinals of the Under-19 Asian Youth Cup Cricket after registering its straight second win against Kuwait today.

The UAE’s emphatic seven-wicket win was materialized before the scheduled lunch break at the St. Xavier’s Ground.

The Kuwait batsmen could not shine in front of UAE attacks spearheaded by Muhammad Abdullah and Muhammad Usman and collapsed to meagre 61 runs in 26.5 overs. The UAE showed their superiority in all the departments of the game and reached the victory target with the loss of just three wickets in just 13.4 overs.

Abdullah and Usman claimed three wickets each and Muhammad Asaf scalped two of Kuwait wickets. Kuwait’s Zeeshan Sabri (13) was the only batsman who reached the double figure mark. UAE captain Usman was awarded man of the match award for his impressive bowling figure-8-04-07-3. Another impressive bowler for UAE was Asaf who took two wickets conceding no runs in his 1.5 overs.

Malaysia keep hope alive: Malaysia who lost its first match against Kuwait yesterday kept its hope alive to reach the semifinals of Youth Asia Cup Cricket beating Qatar by 94 runs in the Engineering institute ground today.

Electing to bat first, the Malaysian Middle order batsman Suryaprakash Ganeshan smashed half centuries and captain A.V.Supiah assisted Ganeshan with his 22 runs to post 199 for nine in 50 overs. Ganeshan for his 51 won the man of the match award. Qatar fell for 105 in 33 overs.

In reply, Qatar batsmen bungled in the middle of the wicket as the Malaysian fielders and bowlers took control. Qatar’s three wickets fell as runouts while Supiah and Gopinath took two wickets each. Raymond Sam, Razman and Rizuan took one each of Qatar’s wickets.

Oman wins: After being beaten badly by hosts Nepal in yesterday’s match, Oman registered its consolation 7-wicket win against the whipping boys from the Maldives.

Oman, after electing to bowl first, sends the Maldives packing for just 80 runs. The Maldives lost its all wicket in just 22 overs. Mohammad S. Hafiz (16) and Mohammad Azlee (13) were the highest run getters for the island nation of the Indian Ocean. Oman players reached their victory target in 17.1 overs after its middle order batsman Rustam Ali Khan (37) and opener Adnan Ilyas (24) joined to take the team beyond the victory target-82 runs. Rustam Khan bagged Himalayan Bank Man of the Match award.