Nepal has registered second successive victory in the ongoing ICC Asia Under-19’s World Cup Qualifier beating Malaysia by 5 wickets.
After being put into bat by Nepalese skipper Sandeep Lamichhane, Malaysia were only able to post a total of mere 58 runs after losing all their wickets in 25.5 overs. In reply, Nepal chased the target in 9.5 overs with 5 wickets remaining.
Nepal, following their poor batting performance in the last match against Singapore, yet again failed to provide much needed start with the bat as Sandeep Sunar got out cheaply for 6 runs in only the 2nd over of the innings. Finally, Aasif Sheikh got his form back top scoring the run chart with 23 runs off 20 balls smashing 5 fours in the process. Pranit Thapa Magar who scored 23 runs in the previous match batting at no. 3 stirred Nepal to a comfortable victory after scoring an unbeaten 18 runs off 12 balls hitting 1 four and a six. Pranit was demoted to no. 5 as Aadil Khan, who replaced wicket-Keeper batsman Prakash KC from the last match batted at no. 3 . Aadil scored 5 runs, Dipendra Singh Airee scored 4 runs, Anil Shah was caught and bowled for a duck while Rohit Kumar Poudel who scored 4 runs off 5 balls finished the match with a boundary to register Nepal’s 2nd victory in the campaign.
Earlier, Sandeep Lamichanne, playing brilliant cricket, destroyed the Malaysian batting lineup with yet another 5-wicket haul. None of the batsman were able to score in double digits as 3 Malaysian batsmen were out for a duck while 11 runs from extras remained the highest run scorer of the innings.
Kishore Mahato opened the wickets tally dismissing Muhammad Amir for a duck in the 5th ball of the 1st over. Pawan Sarraf and Sandeep Lamichhane were all over Malaysia’s batting lineup as they were reduced to 39/9 from 21/1 in a span of 7 overs. Skipper Sandeep Lamichhane again led from the front picking up 5 wickets in 8.5 overs including a maiden and conceding only 17 runs while Pawan Sarraf picked up 3 wickets in his 3 overs including a maiden and conceding only 9 runs. Sandeep Sunar and Kishore Mahato had a scalp each in their name as well while Singapore were bowled out for mere 58 runs in 25.5 overs.
In the other match of the tournament held today, Afghanistan also registered their 2nd successive win beating Singapore by 7 wickets in 17 overs, chasing a target of 93 runs.
In the last match, Nepal U-19 won by 4 wickets against Singapore U-19. Scorecard
Nepal will face Afghanistan U-19 in their 3rd match of the qualifier on Thursday, 20th of July.
The winner of the tournament will qualify through to the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2018 to be held in January, in New Zealand. Nepal are bunched up with Malaysia, Afghanistan and the hosts Singapore in the qualifiers.