Nepal defeated Qatar by 98 runs in the third-place playoff of the World Cup Qualifying Series Division II cricket tournament at the Bayumas Club of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to avenge the loss in the ACC Trophy today.
Nepal scored 176/7 in the rain-curtailed 39-over match before bowling out the entire Qatar team for mere 78 in 29.1 overs. Opening pace bowler Mehboob Alam bowled deadly line to claim five wickets and man of the match award. Nepal had lost to Qatar in the quarterfinal of the ACC Trophy last year that shattered the Himalayan Kingdom’s dream to qualify for the Asia Cup and ICC Trophy reaching the final.
Nepal lost the toss and were asked to bat first. The weakness against pace-bowling was once again exposed as Usman Malik took three quick wickets – that of Paresh Lohani, Mehboob and Shakti Gauchan – to make it 19/3. Dipendra Chaudhary, who failed in early two matches and was omitted in next two, added 57 with Kaniska Chaugai. Dipendra made 24 off 42 deliveries while young Kaniska got 33 off 39.
Captain Binod Das continued his good form with bat scoring quickfire 37 off 27 balls with four boundaries. He was well-supported by Unil Shrestha who made 23 with a four and a six and Raj Kumar Pradhan who scored 20 off 17 balls as Nepal ended its allotted overs with 176/7.
In second innings, it was Mehboob, who hogged the limelight with fiery bowling. His tight line gave him five wickets – four bowled and one leg-before. His five, and one by Dhirendra Chand, sent Qatar to 20/6 and within next 14 runs they lost two more – one to Dhirendra and other to Paras.
From 34/8, Rocky Cutinha and Usman Malik added 20 runs for tenth wicket before Malik was run out for 13. Cutinho, who topscored with unbeaten 34, added 24 more with last man Qamar Sadiq, whose contribution was only 2 runs, before Sadiq was bowled out on the first ball of 30th over by Binod.
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea, who defeated Nepal in the first match, qualified for the ICC Trophy 2005, winning the tournament. PNG defeated neighbor Fiji by 30 runs with Jamie Brazier taking man-of-the-match award. Similarly, Cayman Island defeated Kuwait by 3 wickets in fifth-place playoff while Italy edged past Zambia to take seventh position in eight-nation tournament.