Fragile Batting Downs Nepal against Aussies

The well-known batting fragility put Nepal on the backfoot as Australian pacer James Pattinson utilized the pace and swing well to give his team a 96-run win at the University Sains Malaysia Groud, Penang in the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup.

Nepal restricted Australia to 206 in 48.5 overs but got out in 110 in 32.1 overs to hand over the Aussies a big win. The defeat has virtually ended Nepal’s hopes of qualifying to the Super League.

While Australia qualified for the Super League from Pool C, Nepal looks destined to play Plate Championship once again with only a series of favorable results give Nepal some mathematical chance.

Nepal must now hope that Sri Lanka loses both its remaining matches against Namibia and Australia badly and should beat Namibia by a big margin to get into the Super League.

Nepali slow bowlers bowled brilliantly to bowl out the Aussies for 206 after they got off to a flying start but a magnificent bowling by man-of-the-match Pattinson and lack of application and sheer stupidity on the part of batsmen put paid to Nepali hopes.

It all started with opener Mahesh Chhetri’s run out off a free-hit off the last ball of the third over. Mahesh played the ball to third man and set out for a run but his partner Anil Mandal, who had hit two superb flicked-fours till then, sent him back and he was caught short by a throw from Phillip Hughes to wicketkeeper Dom O’Brien.

Mandal then himself got out at nine three balls later edging Pattinson to the wicketkeeper and skipper Paras Khadka was trapped in front a ball later by a sharp one reducing Nepal to 16/3 from 16/0 after it got 11 off the first over.

“We did well to restrict them but it all started (to go wrong) with that run out,” Nepali coach Roy Dais fumed.

Gyanendra Malla then looked solid before getting out at 17 edging Pattinson to Steven Smith at second slip giving the new ball bowler his third wicket in his first spell that ripped the heart out of the Nepali batting.

“There was something in it if you hit the deck early on. But it was very hot and I was getting tired after five overs,” Pattinson said proving how stupid the run out really was.

“We did not take Nepal lightly and played them like Pakistan or India,” he added

Nepal then lost its wickets to spinners Clive Rose and Smith, who took three wickets each, with careless shots to crumble down to 66/9 before No 9 Rahul BK and Amrit showed how to handle the spinners adding valuable 44 runs that kept the margin of loss to less than 100.

“Antim (Thapa), Sagar (Khadka) and Akash (Gupta) threw away their wickets. Only Gyanendra, Anil and Paras got good balls,” Dias added.

Rahul batted elegantly to make unbeaten 33 off 47 including three straight fours and a six in the same direction. Amrit made nine off 20 with two boundaries.

Earlier, Nepali slow bowlers bowled brilliantly to pull things back after Australian openers made 38 in the first five overs and 55 in 10.

Paras brought in left-arm spinner Raj Shrestha to replace expensive Amrit Bhattarai, the four-wicket star against Sri Lanka on Monday, and he immediately slowed things down along with disciplined Paras and gave the much needed breakthrough by bowling towering opener Kirk Pascoe for 37 off 39 balls that included five fours and a six.

Aussie captain Michael Hill, high in confidence after the swashbuckling hundred against Namibia on Sunday, then promoted himself to No 3 to unsettle Nepali spinners. He hit a brisk run-a-ball 12 including a six and a four off successive balls from Sagar but played one shot too many and holed out to Akash at long on giving Raj his second wicket.

Raj then dismissed Smith for 17 for his third wicket as spinners slowed things down for Australia. Opener Phillip Hughes made a patient 46 off 94 balls before being stumped by wicketkeeper Mahesh off Rahul.

The Aussies then somehow recovered and looked good to finish above 230 with useful contributions from Michael Cranmer (32) and James Faulkner (22) but Paras brought himself back in the 44th over to bowl off-spin to rattle the Aussies. He took three wickets in his second over of the spell and took another in his last to take 4/13 in the spell.

“We could have got more runs but we got out at the wrong time,” Australian captain Hill lamented. “But we always knew that 200 would be a good total as there was something in it early on for the new ball. And there was help for the spinners as well.”

Nepali skipper Paras was crestfallen after the match. “We really lost a good opportunity to get into the Super League,” he said not knowing the slim mathematical chance left. “I am satisfied with the bowling as we came back after a poor start but disappointed with batting. We lacked application from the batsmen.”

Sri Lanka faces Namibia on Wednesday while Nepal takes on Namibia in its last group match Thursday.

BY PREM DHAKAL, Penang, Malaysia

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