National 10 (Spotlight Weekly)

Coming Of Age

Nepal made a sensational display of its cricketing skills at the Under-15 Asia Cup cricket tournament in U.A.E.

By NIRAJ POUDYAL

In keeping with its track record of displaying gritty performances at the international level, the under 15 Nepalese cricket team gave even the titans a run for their money during the recent Asia Cup tournament held in the United Arab Emirates.

The young Nepalese team led by skipper Raj Shrestha beat Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and Singapore during the first round to reach into the super league where it trounced Bangladesh, one of the ten test playing nations, and Kuwait losing only to India.

Nepal's glorious run was cut short in the semi-final when it lost to Pakistan in a closely contested match. Pakistan went on to win the tournament. Pakistan - a cricketing stronghold - defeated Nepal by 27 runs in the semifinal match. In the forty overs match, Pakistan were made to pack up 36.3 overs collecting only 117 runs. However, Nepalese batsmen could not chase the meager target as they were all out for 90 runs in 37 overs.

"Running between the wickets and inexperience were the weakest points of our team in the tournament," said Raj Shrestha, team captain of Nepal, at a program organized by Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) to felicitate the Nepalese team on their return to Nepal. "Despite our limited practice session of twenty days, our players showed the confidence and team effort during the whole tournament from December 7-21," he added. He added, "Our team achieved their targets within twenty overs in all the matches that Nepal won."

The CAN handed over cricket sports-ware to five Nepalese players who had won the titles of man of the match in the tournament. Paras Khadka, Sunil Jain and Pawan Das respectively bagged the titles in the matches against Singapore, Malaysia and Bangladesh while Deepak Shrestha and Irphan Ahmad Siddhiqi were adjudged man of the match during their showdown against Kuwait.

Nepalese team's journey to the semi-final was preceded by its victories in six matches (four in the first round and two in the super league round). Nepal lost to India in the super league, the only defeat it had to face before reaching the semi finals. Even the officials of the Asian Cricket Council have stated Nepal's display as remarkable among the non-test playing nations.

In the first round, Nepal had secured first place in the group B by defeating all other teams of the group. In its opening game, chasing the meager target of 95 runs, Nepal declared victory over Singapore in 19.4 overs losing just two wickets. But this victory proved to be just the trailer of the adventurous voyage of Nepalese team. In its second, third and fourth matches played against Kuwait, Qatar and Malaysia, Nepal emerged victorious by 7 wickets, 146 runs and 8 wickets respectively.

The cricket officials agree that the success of U 15 team means Nepal has a promising future. "These are the very lads who will be playing cricket at adult level in future. Their competence proves we will have strong team indeed," said Binaya Raj Pandey, general secretary of CAN. The tournament also revealed new talents of cricket in the international arena. Players like Sharad Veshwakar who scored a century against Qatar and Raj Shrestha, team captain, who took four Pakistani wickets giving only 15 runs proved their skills.