Nepal’s batting flattered once again as Oman registered a 12-run victory in the ACC Twenty20 Elite Cup at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Dipendra Chaudhary took three wickets to restrict Oman to lowly 112/9 in 20 overs but Hemin Desai’s hat-trick wrecked Nepal’s top-order to bowl out Nepal for 100 in 19.1 overs. It was Oman’s third victory and Nepal’s second loss in three matches.
Winning the toss, Nepal elected to field first. That decision paid off as Oman went down to 21/3. But Ghazanfar Iqbal (37), Sultan Ahmed (23), Adnan Ilyas (12) and Syed Amir Ali (11) helped team score three-digit.
Dipendra, who took 4 wickets a day earlier, was at his best again taking three wickets for 19 runs in 4 overs while left-arm spinner Shakti Gauchan who shared new ball with Binod Das got 2/22. Binod and Basant Regmi took a wicket each.
Nepal’s reply was disastrous as Dipendra was gone in the first over after hitting two fours off the first balls and then being bowled by Awal Khan. Then it was Hemin who grabbed a hat-trick taking wickets of Mehboob Alam, Sharad Vesawkar and Dipendra Chaudhary to make it 16/4.
Hemin first bowled Dipendra with a slower delivery and took a return catch to dismiss Mehboob with the last two deliveries of the first over. He then bowled Sharad Vesawkar with the first ball of his next over.
Gyanendra Malla (20) and Basant Regmi (26) stablize Nepal’s innings although the asking run-rate was going high but they could not continue long.
As the match was looking dead, former captain Binod hit two sixes and a four for his 10-ball 21 to give some hope but it all went in vein as Awal undid him. Awal finished with 2/16 while Syed Amir and Khalid Rasheed each took two wickets.
Nepal’s chance of qualifying to the semifinals now remains mostly on the mathematical calculations. Nepal will play Qatar after a day’s break.
“It’s pity that the senior and experienced guys failed to achieve such a target,” lamented coach Roy Dias. Dias expressed surprise over the selection of shots made by his senior boys.
“Our spinners did exceptionally well but pacemen were a total dissapointment,” added the coach. “The dismissal of the first two wickets (Dipendra and Mehboob) was turning point of the match,” said Dias.
Skipper Paras said he was shocked by the way his team batted. “It’s horrible batting. Our bowlers did their part but I have not seen such a poor batting in last five-six years,” said Paras. “We should clear our mindset before thinking of the remaining matches,” he added.