Nepal won the toss and elected to bat first. Opener Shilu Rijal scored 35 runs and Mamta Chaudhary remained unbeaten with 23 runs as Nepal scored 136 runs for five wickets in 25 overs. Indu Verma contributed 17 runs for Nepali team while Sonu Khadka remained unbeaten for 9 runs. Anuradha Chaudhary contributed five runs and Captain Rubina Chhetri scored just three runs. Kabita Gautam, who had scored 25 runs against China on Friday, scored just 2 runs against Malaysia on Saturday.

Syazwani and Nadhirah took two wickets each forMalaysia.

In reply, Malaysia could not resist Nepali bowling attack. Malaysia were all out for 39 runs in 16.2 overs. Player of the match Santoshi Kumari Chaudhary took four wickets giving away 13 runs. Captain Rubina  claimed three wickets giving away 9 runs. Kabita  claimed a wicket while two Malaysian batswomen were run out.

Nepal had beaten China by seven wickets in its first match of the tournament on Friday. Nepal are defending champion of the tournament.

Nepal will take on the UAE on Sunday.

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Nepalwon the second T20 match in their Mumbai Tour on Saturday as they defeated Nrilon Sports Club by five wickets.

According to cricket umpire Raman Siwakoti, who is following Nepali team in Mumbai, Nirlon Sports Club won the toss and elected to bat first.Nepalrestricted them at 124/9 in 20 overs as Chandra Saud took four wickets. Amrit Bhattarai and Shakti Gauchan claimed two wickets each. Mohit Parwal was the highest scorer for Nirlon as he scored 53 runs.

In reply, Nepali Captain Paras Khadka scored 57 runs and Sharad Vesawkar remained unbeaten for 49 runs to guideNepalto 128/5 in 19 overs. Paresh Lohani scored 12 runs. Prithu Baskota remained not out for six runs while Pradeep Airee scored only 1 run. Mehboob Alam and Gyanendra Malla were both duck out.

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Gautam took three wickets giving away only 11 runs in her 5 overs and scored unbeaten 25 runs off 32 balls to seal the victory.

Nepal elected to field first at the Unity Ground and bowled out Chinafor 61 runs in 23.1 overs. Gautam caught Chinese opener Chen Huiya off Sonu Khadka’s bowling in the first ball of second over. Another Chinese opener Li Yangying (1 run) was run out in the fourth over as Gautam was superb on fielding.

China were 5 for 3 in 4.5 overs as Captain Rubina Chhetri trapped Zhou Caiyun (1 run) LBW. Ying Lili and Zhu Liya tried to anchor the Chinese innings and put up 29 runs partnership for the fourth wicket. However, Santoshi Chaudhary claimed the wicket of Lili (13 runs) and Sangeeta Gauchan bowled Liya when she was batting at 14 runs. Gauchan bowled Liu Jia (3 runs) and Shantoshi Chaudhary trapped Ding XiuXiu run-out.

Gautam took final three wickets to wrap up Chinese innings.

Chasing the small total,Nepalmet the target in 15.2 overs losing just three wickets.Nepallost their first wicket in the fifth over. Shilu Rijal (naught) was first Nepali batswomen to return pavilion. Ying Lili took the wicket of Rijal. Another Nepali opener Anuradha Chaudhary scored 12 runs before she was bowled by Chen Huiya in the second ball of the sixth over.

However, Indu Verma and Gautam played superb knocks to guideNepalto victory. Verma scored 16 runs off 22 balls before being bowled out by off-spinner Ding Xiuxiu.

Gautam remained unbeaten for 25 runs off 32 balls. Gautam hit three boundaries and Verma struck two boundaries.

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Nepali team led by Coach Pubudu Dassanayake and captain Paras Khadka is touring Mumbai for practice matches asNepalis preparing for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers to be held in the UAE on March.

According to Nepali umpire Raman Siwakoti, who is also in the tour, Nepali team won the toss and elected to field first and the decision proved to be a right one. JNPT was all out for 53 runs in 16 overs. Basant Regmi and Sanjam Regmi took three wickets each while Amrit Bhattarai took two wickets. Chandra Saud and Mehboob Alam took a wicket each to bundle out the home team in a low score.

In reply,Nepalcould not start well. Nepali opener Subash Khakurel was out in the first over scoring only four runs. However, Nepali team met the target in 12.3 overs losing only three wickets. Sharad Vesawkar scored unbeaten 19 runs while Gyanendra Malla remained not out for 11 runs. Pradeep Airee scored eight runs and Captain Khadka contributed six runs for Nepali team.

Nepali team will play six T20 and two 50-over matches in its tour to Mumbai.

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Among boys, Nepal won the title 4 times, between 2001 to 2007, and played in ICC U-19 World Cup five times. Come August, Nepal will play in the U-19 World Cup for the sixth time, in Australia. Youth Asia Cup 2001 (late called U-19 ACC championship) was the first ever international title Nepal won, under captaincy of Binod Das.

It was the U-19 team, who started making history among women as well. ACC U-19 championship in 2008 (Thailand) was the first international trophy for Nepali women, in cricket. Two years later, Nepali girls defeated Bhutan to defend the title in Singapore and now Nepal is on a hat-trick of ACC U-19 trophy. If the girls are not able to take the title, Nepal will be without any ACC trophy for the first time in two years.

In past two title wins, Sita Ranamagar, Sarita Magar, Mamata Thapa, Gita Chudal and Trishna Singh were part of the core team, along with captain Nery Thapa. Now these players are not part of the team, due to age barrier. This might add to some pressure to the team. Opening bowler Sonu Khadka will be playing for the third consecutive time. But Coach Nabin Singh says it will not make any difference. He is confident of hat-trick.

“As others have said, this team is better than previous ones. So I see a good possibility of win,” Singh says, “that’s why we have practice matches with the senior players available in Kathmandu. The team is playing well.” He is confident also because his players are generally fit, apart from minor niggles. He feels a lot of allrounders in the team is a ‘plus point’.

Rubina Chhetri, Indu Verma, Shradha Aryal, Arati Bidari were part of the team when Nepal won title in Singapore. Rubina, who took 3 wickets against Bhutan in the final, is leading the team this time around. She is hopeful of the title under her captainship. She says, “If we play according to our potential, this is the best team we have so far. Earlier, the team relied on Nery Thapa’s batting, now we don’t rely on one single player. All bat well, it’s an allround team.”

Nepal is grouped along with China, UAE, Malaysia and Thailand in ‘Group A’, in the championship that will be played in February 3-10. Four years ago, Nepal had defeated Malaysia in first match and the final. Likewise, Nepal had handed defeat to China, by 66 runs, and Thailand, by 83 runs, in the same edition of the tourney.

Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) organized first U-19 national women’s championship and formed the national team thereafter. Janakpur (Region 7), which was formed as a separate region only one and half years earlier, became the champion for the first time. Naturally, many players from the team made it to the national team. Anuradha Chaudhary, Saraswati Chaudhary, Mamata Chaudhary, Santoshi Chaudhary and Kavita Gautam, who are likely to form the core of the team are from Janakpur.

Coach of the Janakpur team, Nabin Singh has become the coach of U-19 women’s team. He looks as nervous as he is excited to lead the national team for the first time. But he rejects it, “If the coach is nervous, what will happen to the players?”

He understands that 25 over matches will be challenging for the girls. But he has faith in his team, as he has players like Rubina, Indu, Mamata, Anuradha, Sonu and Kavita in the ranks.

(Ed: The write-up appeared in Nagarik national daily, on 31st January, 2012)

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I am here not to talk about tennis and I can’t even forget almost six hours of clash between Djokovic and Nadal in the Australian Open final. However, I am here to talk about the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

I tweeted at the end of the 4-match Test series about India’s flop duo Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman’s retirement plans. I wrote: “this will not gonna happen” and it will not happen.

No doubt they had extraordinary talent. Sachin Tendulkar, well every one can put him on exceptional case, will and can play as long as he wants to. By the way he is 38 years old and I guess waiting for his 100th ton to think about retirement.

Among the all batsman who toured at this test series Sachin was the only player who looked in good touch, it was perfect bowling by the Aussies that made it difficult for him to score. Rahul 39, VVS 37 and a flop show this summer has hinted to play more, more and more, and they will, trust me.

As they enter the big stage back home no one can stop them. This is what I don’t like about Indian Cricket Team. Talents that are willing to play for their country has to wait a long time and when time comes they look depressed waiting for long time.

Rohit Sharma is a good example, the selectors made him chew his nails even in the last match, we all guessed this time he will get a chance but he didn’t. This is what Indian team is, was and will be…

Indian bowlers? I have a suggestion: do not tour abroad until and unless you have bowlers who can hit the deck hard at 150 kmph. Zaheer was one and Yadav looks like having a bright future. I missed Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh.

As previous tour, Team India were here in Australia to get rid of the cold weather back home. They lacked cricket basics. Few old legs combined with a few young lazy legs. Players were chasing the ball as if a Bollywood Actor running to hug his heroine in super slow motion.

A tour should be planned and you should act on the plan and give a fight. Team Australia did this and they are holding the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Every player played their part, captain Clarke passed his exam, his decisions were extremely impressive and it stroke the brain and hit the heart.

This series became a good platform to former captain Ricky Ponting get his form back. Aussie bowlers are the true winners if we analyze the whole series. Hilfenhaus, Sidddle, Pattinson and Harris all bowled according to the plan and they got the reward whenever their captained.

Overall, this summer cricket didn’t give me The Entertainment. Lets see what will the ODI Tri-Series has for me.

Now I am eagerly waiting for our boys for the U-19 World Cup…

Cricket Nepal special correspondent Sudin Pokharel writes from Sydney, Australia.

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Nepali team, led by Coach Pubudu Dassanayake and Captain Paras Khadka, will play six T20 matches and two 50-over matches in Mumbai during the tour. The tam will reach Bhairahawa by road and take train to reach Mumbai on February 2.

Nepali team will take on Cricket Club of India (CCI) in a T20 match on February 4 and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust on February 5. Nepali team will lock horns with Nerul Gymkhana in a 50-over match on February 6 and Khadka’s boys will face DY Patil Club in a T20 match on February 7.

Islam Gymkhana will host Nepali team next morning in a 50-over match. On February 9 and 10, Nepal will get Police Gym Club and Dilip Vensarkar Cricket Academy respectively in T20 matches.

February 11 will be a rest day for the team while Nepali team will take on Thana District team in a T20 match on February 12 before returning to Kathmandu.

“I’m in touch with some Scottish and English players training in Pune, India. I’m expecting a T20 match against a combined team of those players on February 3. However, it is yet to be finalized,” said Coach Dassanayake.

Significance of the tour

TB Shah, the First Vice President of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), said that the Mumbai-tour is the first step taken by the association in the direction of giving match exposure to the players of national team.

“This is the first step taken by CAN to provide practice matches to our players on different ground, weather and crowd conditions as well as against better opponents,” said Shah.

For national team coach Dassanayake, the Mumbai-tour is an opportunity to find proper mixture of the national team.

“I’m not looking for big results in this tour. However, it could be a chance to build winning momentum and to identify our top five batsmen and top five bowlers,” said Dassanayake.

“Everybody in the team will get proper chance in the tour and I’ll try to find proper mixture of the team before the ICC World T20 Qualifiers,” he added.

Nepali skipper Khadka expects the tour to be a tough one. “I’m expecting tough opponents in the tour, which will expose our weaknesses,” said Khadka.

“After the tour we’ll have time to correct our weaknesses,” he added.

What is training plan after the tour?

According to Coach Dassanayake, he will start a closed camp training and fast bowling camp on parallel from February 16.

“We’ll spot our weaknesses during the tour and we’ll try to focus on our weaker areas in the closed camp training that will undergo for three weeks,” said Dassanayake.

“We are expecting ACC Development-Officer Rumesh Ratnayake to be here in Kathmandu by February 16 and the fast bowling camp will undergo side by side,” he added.

Dassanayake is also expecting at least two warm-up matches in the UAE. “We want to reach Dubai at least 3-4 days earlier of the tournament and have few warm-up matches,” he said.

According to skipper Paras Khadka, all the players will undergo fitness test before flying to Dubai.

What happened in the last 10 days?

The CAN announced 18-member squad for the Mumbai-tour on January 24 and it is the preliminary squad for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers.

After a round of fitness test and five practice matches, CAN has selected 18-member squad.

In the five practice matches, Pradeep Airee was on the top among the batsmen. Airee scored 138 runs in five matches facing altogether 130 balls. He remained unbeaten twice and scored with an average of 46.

Paresh Lohani was the second on the highest scorers’ list. He scored 134 runs in five matches facing altogether 152 balls with an average of 26.8.

Skipper Khadka scored 80 runs playing in four innings of the five practice matches. He is on the third position among the highest run getters but his average is 20 and his highest score is 25.

Among the bowlers, Basant Regmi remained on the top. He took eight wickets bowling 19.2 overs with the economy of 3.72. Binod Das took seven wickets bowling 14 overs with the economy of 5.92.

Rahul Vishwakarma claimed six wickets in the five practice matches. He bowled 14 overs during the practice matches with the economy of 6.35.

However, Das is not included in the team touring to Mumbai.

Team Combination

The team touring Mumbai includes Paresh Lohani but excludes Binod Das. This is the first time in almost 13 years that Das was not considered for a team he is qualified to play for while Lohani had pulled out his name from the team for the Pepsi World Cricket League Division 5 held in Kathmandu in February 2010 citing personal reasons. Lohani hadn’t featured in the national team ever since.

“We’ve explained Binod (Das) about his exclusion. Amrit (Bhattarai) is our opening bowler and Krishna Karki is also well-shaped bowler against middle order. As we picked Amrit and Krishna in the team, we looked for an aggressive and young fast bowler and Avinash Karn fit there,” said Dassanayake.

“Binod (Das) is still a good option for us for 50-over format,” he added.

The other players in the 18-member squad are Gyanendra Malla, Prithu Baskota, Subash Khakurel, Basanta Regmi, Binod Bhandari, Sharad Vesawkar, Sanjam Regmi, Pradeep Airee, Shakti Gauchan, Rahul Vishwakarma, Anil Mandal, Mehboob Alam and Chandra Saud.

(Ed: The write-up appeared in Republica national daily, on 31st January, 2012)

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This is not the first preparation tour for Nepal and neither shall it be the last. But this time around, the team will be traveling without former skipper Binod Das, who has been dropped from the team.

There would be few people to challenge this decision, but it should be noted that he has been dropped only for the T20 matches. Many would remember his over against Afghanistan in recently held ACC T20 Cup. As he ran in to bowl 4^th over, Nepal was defending 68 runs, he looked out of sorts, having a catch dropped in his previous over. He was promptly belted all around the park, 21 runs were conceded in the over and match was as good as over for Nepal. Binod cut a lonely figure in the ground, not much activity going around him. Maybe that was the moment; many had concluded it was all over for him, so there is not much of a surprise in him being dropped. After all, you cannot have a strike bowler who bowls at less than 70 miles per hour.

The good thing is, this was the first time that a player was told by the coach and the selector about being dropped from the team, unlike earlier, where players came to know of them being dropped through newspapers. Apparently he was told that team needed to try out new combinations and was looking for fresher faces.

“I was obviously disappointed, but I will keep improving myself in all formats of the game,” Binod says, “I am in fact fitter than earlier.” His fellow players will tell you, Binod was in fact the pick of the bowlers during the camp held. He took 7 wickets in 4 practice matches and had at least one catch dropped off his bowling in every one of them.

That is what we should expect from a player that has taken 82 wickets in 62 One Dayers. His record at U-19 level has also been impressive. He has been even more potent in the longer version – the 3-dayers – with 67 scalps in 14 matches. Many would remember his 6 for 29, when Nepal defeated UAE in 2005-6. The numbers force you into believing he is good at what he does.

But, of late, Binod has been a story of diminishing returns and maybe not as potent a force that he was a few years ago. But his story should be an inspiration to many other budding cricketers of the country. Coming from a modest family from Kalaiya, with limited means and rising to the ranks becoming a mainstay of national cricket team for over a decade. He is the first Nepali cricketer to have played more than 100 international games (in all formats of cricket). He is also a success story for Cricket Association of Nepal too, coming from age-group teams and taking the helm of a national team. He played in U-17, U-19 and the senior side, and this alone should tell the cricket authorities why feeder system of players in the form of age-group tournaments is a must, if you want a good national side.

The Binod story may not yet be over, for he feels that he can still be a part of the team, something that Nepal coach Pubudu Dassanayake also echoes. “He’s still a part of plan in the longer version,” he says.

Despite his loss of form and injury in recent times, one should hail him for his contribution to Nepal cricket. Yours truly would always remember 2000, when Binod was batting as a tailender against Hong Kong – the match we lost with a good margin – and Rameez Raja, former Pakistan Test player was commentating on TV. Watching Binod bat, Raja said, “I’ve never seen a No 10 batsman, playing with such good stance and straight bat.”

For me, that shall remain Binod’s contribution, being the first person who got us noticed in World Cricket.

(Ed: This write up appeared in The Kathmandu Post, national daily, under Somesh’s column: OFFSIDE, on 28th Jan 2012)

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(Ed: This write up appeared in Republica national daily under Ujjwal’s column: SPORTY SPIRIT, on 28th Jan 2012)

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Meanwhile, the board meeting also appointed other eight people as member of the CAN executive committee. The nominated are Sanjeeb Pandey (Eastern Region), Ram Chandra Sharma (Central), Deepak Koirala (Western), Purna Lama (Mid-Western) and Bipat Ram Chaudhary (Far-Western Region). Likewise, Sunil Man Amatya, Amrita Paudel and Dharma Sundar Bajracharya have also nominated as members of the committee. Amatya was the vice president of the ad-hoc committee formed by National Sports Council on October 26, 2011.

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