Gauchan, Shrestha fashion Nepal’s mammoth victory

BY NARAYAN UPADHYAY

Kathmandu, Oct. 13: Nepal made a clean sweep of all its league fixtures today when it trounced the whipping boys Maldives by a whopping 251 runs in its last match of the group B at the Engineering Institute ground in the ongoing Under-19 Asian Youth Cricket Cup.

Lanky Shakti Gauchan, who achieved the distinction of becoming the first batsmen in the tournament to have scored a century, and other top order Nepal batsmen proved that their batting is not of an average standard for they hammered a mammoth 307 for six in 50 overs, the highest run aggregate scored so far in the ongoing tournament.

The Bhairahawa-born middle order batsman, Gauchan, showed grit as well as batting techniques in his patiently struck century punctuated with seven fours. Gauchan needed just 107 balls to touch the magic mark of 100 runs in 109 minutes of his vigil at the crease.

The another highlight of the Nepalese innings was the performance of all-rounder Manjit Shrestha, who, apart from hitting a quick 43 in 25 balls, in which he struck three fours and two sixes, one at long –off and another at long-on, also claimed five wickets for 28 runs. Both Shakti and Manjit were given the man of the match with for their brilliant works by bats and balls.

Gauchan and Manjit along with opener Kanishka Chaugai and Bardan Chalise both of whom chipped in with 37 runs each contributed handsomely to the team to post the mammoth total. The match, as expected by many, turned out to be a batting practice fixture for the hosts as most of its top order batsmen got the chance to wield their willows in front of the shaky Maldivians’ attacks.

While today’s win gave the hosts three wins out of three, for Maldivians it was just the opposite.

They lost all there three matches. It was really a sad day for the lowly placed minnows – the Maldivians, who after failing with balls also failed badly to sparkle with bat. In front of hosts’ huge and incredible looking total, they did not see any chance to do better and there was virtually no effort to do better in front of accurate medium pace attack of the captain Das who claimed three Maldivians wickets and Manjit. The South Indian Island nation collapsed to a petty 56 in just 28. 6 overs in their one hour fifty five minute long innings.

The victory placed hosts in the top of the table and will face the runners up of the pool A in the semifinals on Monday. Sunday will be the rest day.

SCOREBOARD

Nepal (won the toss and elected to bat)

Kaniska Chaugai lbw A.Arafat 37 (33)

Yashwant Subedi c keeper b AU Jamal 04 (04)

Bardan Chalise c keeper b M Mahfooz 37 (50)

Shakti Gauchan st. keeper b M. Azlee 100 (107)

Basudev Thapa lbw A. Arafat 43 (54)

Binod Das c. wkt keeper b Azlee 07 (11)

Manjit Shrestha notout 43 (25)

Lakpa Lama notout 11 (16)

Extras 25

Total 307

Overs 50

Did not bat: Manoj Katuwal, Sanjam Regmi, Basant Regmi

Fall of Wickets: 1/08, 2/74, 3/121, 4/230, 5/247, 6/254

Bowling: Habeeb 07-0-49-0. Jamal 05-0-25-1. Iyadh Ahmed 02-012-0. Arafat 10-0-53-2. Ziyadh 04-0-36-0. Azlee 10-0-53-2. Mahfooz 10-0-56-1 Hafiz 01-0-22-0

The Maldives

Hasan Aflam runout( Yashwant) 03 (05)

Hasan Ziyadh b Binod Das 02 (34)

Md.Sarfaraz Hafiz lbw M. Shrestha 09 (24)

Md. Azlee lbw Shrestha 02 (08)

I. Iujaz Hafiz c Kanishka bDas 05 (08)

A.I.Ahmed c&b Shrestha 06 (15)

Md. Habeeb b Shrestha 00 (03)

Md. Mahafooz b Basant Regmi 02 (33)

A. U. Jamal c Das b, Shrestha 00 (10)

A. Arafat notout 08 (17)

I. Suwaidh b Das 01 (15)

Extras 18

Total 56

Overs 28.2

Fall of Wkts: 1/3, 2/16, 3/18, 4/23, 5/23, 6/23, 7/37, 8/43, 9/54, 10/56

Bowling: Binod Das 9.2-04-09-03. Manjit Shrestha 10-01-28-05. Basant Regmi 05-02-05-01. Lakpa Lama 04-0-09-0.

Result: Nepal won by 251 runs

Himalayan Bank Man of the Match: Jointly shared by Nepal’s Shakti Gauchan and Manjit Shrestha.

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