Nepali bowlers held their nerves to defend a lowly total against Singapore and register a 16-run win at the IOE Ground in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5 on Sunday.
Sanjam Regmi celebrates a wicket with teammates. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
Nepal bowled out Singapore for 164 in 47.5 overs after scoring 180/9 in 50 overs. The heroes of the win were the Regmi duo of Basant and Sanjam who dominated the proceedings in either innings.
“It was not luck [in the victory], rather it was the determination,” Nepal’s coach Roy Dias said after the nervous win. “The determination in bowling and fielding brought us the win.”
In a hard fought match that could have gone either way till the end, Nepal prevailed by the clever use of spin bowling that was introduced in the seventh over.
Off spinner Sanjam Regmi, who took the first two wickets after Singapore began well the run-chase, took two wickets in the 48th over to conclude the match.
When Sanjam bowled a no-ball and then the free-hit went for a six, it looked like Singapore would surprise the hosts. But he bowled Mohamed Shoib the very next ball for 14 and Jackie Manoj sky-rocketed the third ball he played to backward square where Dipendra Chaudhary took a running catch.
Sanjam finished the match at 4/28 while Basant Regmi (2/33), Rahul BK (1/42), Shakti Gauchan (1/29) and spin-bowling Paras Khadka (1/5) supported the cause for win.
Dipendra takes the winning catch and it's celebration time. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
“The wicket was not supporting the pacers so we need to bring in spinners early on,” captain Paras commented. “I have to fiddle the spinners according to the batsmen.”
Singapore began the innings well with Buddhika Mendis and Chetan Suryawanshi adding 29 in eight overs. Mendis was out on 13 stumped by Mahesh Chhetri off Sanjam. New man Chandrasekar Venkadaramani (3) was caught off edge by Shakti as spinners dominated the proceedings.
Paras saved Sanjam after seven overs and rotated between other spinners and himself to control the runs and take wickets occasionally. Anish Param played patient innings anchoring partnerships.
Suryawnashi contributed 29 off 53; captain Munish Arora 20 off 42 to take the team 93/3 in 31 overs. Dharmichand Mulewa and Riaz Hussein could not stay long for Singapore while big-hitting Saad Janjua was bowled by Rahul on the first batting powerplay over.
Janjua however hit Rahul for two sixes at long-on and made 15 off 11 balls. Param, who got 41 off 79 balls, stayed long and his dismissal off Shakti stumped by Mahesh at 44th over was a big success for Nepal as it exposed the tail-enders.
Basant Regmi bowls. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
“Of course a tough luck,” Singapore’s coach Marvan Atapattu commented. “There is nothing much to differ two teams but unfortunately we did not have enough wickets for last 10 overs.”
Former Sri Lankan star-batsman also blamed the wickets for the loss. “The spinners bowled well on a spinners’ wicket; the wicket is unsatisfactory for one-day cricket,” he said adding that the wicket played rough for second-batting team.
The wicket also played unexpected for Paras who won the toss and elected to bat first. “I didn’t expect the wickets to seam, but it did for the first 20 overs and the Singaporean bowlers bowled on right spots,” he said.
Nepal lost three wickets in the first 20 overs for 43 runs as batsmen struggled to cope with the bowling. Mehboob Alam and Dipendra Chaudhary failed in the second match straight as the opening pair.
Middle-order batsmen got the start with Shakti (24), Sharad (32) and Paras (18) getting the start but failing to continue.
The hero of the innings was man of the match Basant who batted with an ease to reach a half-century and partnered Sharad for 61 runs to take Nepal to 135/5. He was the last man out in the innings that concluded at lowly total of 180/9.
Basant made 54 off 61 balls with five fours and was cheered up by 2,500 fans present at the ground for his innings and demanded to see him after he won man of the match award.
Mulewa was the most successful bowler with 3/34 while pacer Janjua took two. Manoj and Mendis grabbed a wicket each.
“The partnership of Sharad and Basant was the turning point as they took us to a defendable total,” Paras said on batting while Dias praised Basant’s innings saying he played according to the need of the situation.
JERSEY, USA win
Jersey batting duo Mathew Hague and Dean Morrison made up for the side’s first-day loss by securing a nine-wicket win over Fiji.
The game, which was broadcast live on Nepal Television at Tribhuvan University Ground, saw Jersey ease its way past a Fiji side that was all out for 120 in 36.2 overs.
Hague and Morrison both made quick-fire half-centuries with the 31-year-old Morrison reaching his with eight fours and one six in 53 balls. Meanwhile man of the match Hague stuck it out to the conclusion of the game and was helped by Peter Gough to secure the Channel Island’s victory.
In Fiji’s innings, Jersey’s Ben Stevens took 2-11 while the top scorers were Sekove Ravoka, Tikovanualevu Kida and veteran player Iniasi Cakacaka each making 25.
Hague, who recently came out of retirement, said: “It was an important game for us to win. The first thing we have to do is get a couple of wins under our belt and ensure that we do stay in Division 5. It was a much needed win to beat Fiji as we couldn’t afford to have two losses.
“I didn’t have a great game yesterday. Cricket is a bit of a mental game so it is nice to get some runs on the board and start feeling confident again.”
Looking ahead to Tuesday’s match against USA, Hague admitted it wouldn’t be easy. He said: “The game against the USA should be a good match, as they are pretty strong, but our win today will give us a lot of confidence.”
Meanwhile, Fiji coach Steve Jenkin reflected on his side’s second loss of the tournament: “It’s a bit early for in-depth reflections but we were set up to score 250 plus and unfortunately we weren’t patient enough to get those runs and lost wickets too quickly.
“Our guys want to hit every ball – they aren’t showing the patience to stay there. We need to change that approach in our future games.
“We bowled poorly and we didn’t do anything that we should have done. We need to get six of our guys fit again, after being sick, but we will talk about what went on here, and try and put things right.”
In the final fixture of the day, the USA’s Lennox Cush shone for the Americans as the side beat Bahrain by 19 runs at the Army Ground.
The all-rounder smashed 11 fours and two sixes in making his 91 for the side, which is the highest individual innings score of the tournament so far. Cush’s captain Steve Massiah also added to the USA’s total with a gritty 67 runs off 92 balls.
Man of the match Cush said: “It was a match-winning innings and I was well supported by the other players. We got off to a bad start today and my innings came at a good time.
“We want to make sure we stay on top of our game. If we play cricket to the best of our ability then I don’t think that anybody can beat us. We have to make sure that we don’t get complacent.”
Losing coach of Bahrain Mohsin Kamal said: “We still have another three matches and a 50-50 chance of qualifying. The USA has already won two matches and we don’t mind if they win all their matches. We just need to win our last three matches and we will try our best.”
Cricket.com.np Facebook & Twitter
For latest updates and information about cricket in Nepal,
visit out Facebook page (and Like it) and Twitter (and Follow it).
Related news:
Tough win against a known opponent !! It seems that Paras is more tactful than the past captain. In the past, Nepal have lost match in similar situations. Taking Binod Das and Alam out of attack, just after 3 overs each seem to be the biggest bet. Paras, who generally bowls medium pace, then spin-bowled himself too. Well done Paras and boys.
The top order needs to fire in other matches now. Alam and Choudhary needs to give good start specially against teams with good batting record. Hope they will be able to fit the shoes they have been given.
Best of Luck.
I am disappointed with the batting performance and by this way players and coach should stop dreaming about playing World Cup. Again its fielding and bowling. Batsman should believe in themselves. They should feel they can do the way their bowlers did in today’s match. Rather than going too defensive and sacrificing their wicket, they should believe that they can stick on the pitch and hit the ball with confidence. 15 Overs are crucial and we were not able to capitalize it with the recent 2 games with Jersey, Singapore. Good luck for the rest of matches.
Congratulation to Nepalese team. Once again our bowlers won us a match. But i am really concerned about our opening batsmen. They bloody never make any runs. Thats why we always have a score around 175-210 (most of the time) which is very less to defend if we are playing with better sides like Afghanstan,USA,UAE .Thats why We never win crutial matches because bowling and fielding only can not make us victorious everytime.
I get really amazed when i see same players playing as openers again and aagin and making no runs and still in the teams.Why we cant find any good openers for our country. To be really honest DIPENDRA CHAOUDHARY,PARESH LOHANI must get retired now.They are really no use for the team. Mehboob alam should be playing at lower order and concentrate more on bowlings.Thats how he will be saving his energy as well.WE DESPERATELLY NEED TO FIND TWO GOOD OPENERS WHO CAN GIVE US A GOOD START SO THAT MIDDLE ORDER WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE THE SCORES ABOVE 260 at least.iN THAT CASE OUR BOWLERS HAVE PLENTY OF RUNS ON THE BOARDS TO DEFEND WHILE PLAYING AGAINST GOOD SIDEs. As far as i know our middle order is good. Shakti gouchan can always build on partnerships,eventhough his strike is very low at least he is reliable and consistent.Sharad Veswakar has all the good shots and i think he is the best batsman of our team right now.Gyanendra malla,Paras khadka i have no issues with them.Our bowlers can bat as well so thats a very good quality to have in the team.Anyway best of luck for our team for upcoming fixtures.
Good to hear Nepal won the second match against Singapore too but opening batting is not working at all. What is happening to Mehboob and Dipendra, we should think to change the opening bats man and Mehboob should come on 2nd or 3rd, Gyanendra or Mahesh can assist Dipendra on opening. Hope Paras and company will win next match too. This time we should qualify for division 4 and open way for world cup. Best of luck for all players. i would request all cricket fans in Nepal to go the venue and support our team as they can go well while we support them. I am out of Nepal and I miss match feel too bad for that. Best of luck boys.
Keep it up guys.
well done Regmi & Regmi! Best of luck for next matches………..
keep your winning movementum……..ahead. but you guys need to improve batting more especially by openers. we have high expections from Mehabub Alam and Dipendra .
good luck.
Ganesh Adhikari
Sydney, Australia
What an exciting win by a margin of 16 runs in a game which see-sawed towards the end of the game ! At the start of the innings with a quick loss of wickets and the score board reading 74/5 I thought Nepal would not be able to put up a respectable total. But thanks to a rearguard batting display by Basanta Regmi and Sarad Vesawkar, which yielded valuable 61 runs for the 6th wicket partnership; which really saved the blushes for Nepal. The contribution of Basanta’s 54, Sarad’s 34, Shakti’s 24 & Paras’ 18 proved valuable for the team’s cause. Once again, the top order has failed to deliver the goods and sooner the captain Paras Khadka seeks out remedy to this problem, the better will it be for team’s cause considering the tournament is approaching towards the culmination with each passing game. All in all, the slow bowlers have to be showered upon with heaps of praises and accolades for having displayed superb exhibition of controlled slow bowling whereby throttling the Singaporean batsmen from scoring runs. It was a superb exhibition of team efforts and ensuring a hard-earned victory. However, the tournament is not yet over and we never know what might crop up in the next few games seeing the re-emergence of Jersey’s convincing 9 wicket victory over Fiji and Bahrain’s superb performance against tournament’s odds-on favourite USA. Although Bahrain lost the game by 19 runs, it was a remarkable turnaround performance having been vanquished by Singapore with a huge margin of 126 runs in its first outing the other day. Remember, 3 games for each team are still to be played in this tournament. So, considering this fact, even so Nepal has won 2 consecutive games, it has to win its remaining games by taking no chances in view of uncertainty of this game of cricket. Since there is one day off, the team can do some soul-searching and work out its strategy for remaining games. Especially, Nepal will have to do something for the opening slot. Definitely, Dipendra Chaudhary and Mehboob Alam will be under pressure to deliver goods having failed in 2 outings so far. Either team management will have to reshuffle the batting order or maintain the same combination by taking one more chance. So, I hope the think-tank will delve into the options and apply appropriate strategy for the upcoming games.
Boys, you have maintained the winning momentum and should continue until your mission is accomplished.
Perfect win for Nepal. Memorable game. The guys seems to be performing well. Only setback is the batting. The opening pair must be rethought. Twice in a row , it didnt click. Dhirendra is blocking too much and Alam is hitting to much, the till date play shows. . The pair especially Dhiren. seems to be in unwanted pressure. Of course, his role is to see off the new ball and what he is trying to do seems good but without success looks akward. Therfore, drop Dhiren for match with Bahrain and bring in Mandal in the opening stand as he seems to be in a bit of form. Shakti must be in no. 3 if the openings go early otherwise Paras can come in no. 3. Sharad is perfect in his position. And Das seems to be wasted. Why not bring Das in the opening stand drop Mehoboob to no. 6 batsman as Alam seems having problem with the seaming ball. and also Mehboob can play his shots in the batting powerplay towards the end. And Das who can of course bat, can open and see off the new ball. And bowling excellent. I say world class spinners. The fast bowlers needs to readjust…… fielding excellent… skipper… fantastic.
Everything is going well till date. Nepal has the tendency of choking towards the end. But hope this time around it can cope up with the tendency… Well done guys keep it up!!!!
first of all its not Dhiren but Dipendra choudhary…
Congraluations! guys, Come on you will do more better in coming days as well.
Speciallly I woul like to many many congraluation to Bashnt Regmi and his teammate also
Well friends, I think shakti needs a break, you guys see his batting, in final what he will do ?
Ok here is what will happen in finall,
Nepal needs 50 runs in 200 balls
Shakti Gauchan in number 3 comes for batting,
his score 150 ball faced: 15 runs
and bold out
now nepal is in pressure, and they will loose the match,
bring him in 7 number if he is in team.
congratulation to Nepal.Good effort. But for the next game against Fiji , i want some change in the line up.Dipendra Chaudhary should b omitted from line up. And Mehboob Alam should b brought down the order n give him one chance n even cant perform then he should also b omitted.Name is nt enough in cricket. if u r out of form then u gotta b out. we have enough promising players in the back up.
and lastly Nepal must try to bat first and score atleast 250 or more. Anything less than that against Fiji wont b welcomed by the nepali fans.My words may seem little rude but if Afghanistan can reach to where it is today with that kind of facilities why cant Nepal be better playing more than 12-13 years n with better facilities then Afghanistan.
We nepali fans deserve better performance from the team.
Awesome Basante….i like that…Keep up the good work…lets go boys, win this trophy gfor everyone.