Nepal booked a semifinal spot in the ongoing ACC Women’s Twenty20 Championship defeating Bhutan by 8 wickets at the Bayemas Oval, Malaysia.
Nepal bowled out Bhutan for 31 in 15.5 overs – thanks to former captain Nary Thapa’s five wicket haul. Rest of the work was made easy that was completed in 8.4 overs losing just two wickets.
Nepal will now meet Thailand in the group winner decider on Wednesday. Nepal and Thailand have qualified from Group A with four wins from five matches.
Bhutan won the toss and elected to bat first. Bhutan did not score much runs early but preserved wickets until Nary came to bowl as fifth bowler. Bhutan was 20/0 in eight overs when she started .
Nary bowled four overs giving away five runs – four of which were wides and grabbing five wickets. She also affected a run out. Rekha Rawal took three wickets in 3.5 overs giving away 8 runs. Neera Rajopadhyay took one.
For Bhutan, the top scorer was opener Yeshi Choden who got seven off 30 balls while five of her colleagues could not open account and four others made just a run each. More than half of their total came as extras – 16 of them.
In reply, Nepal began with Manisha Rawal and Nary. Nary did not shine with bat and was out making 3 off 14 balls while Manisha scored 9 off 19 balls. Anju Gurung took both wickets who returned with a figure of 2/7.
Janaki Bhatta (7 not out) and Saraswoti BK (6 not out) completed the task for Nepal. Both hit a boundary each in a match that saw only those two boundaries.