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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.

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.

“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.

“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.”

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