For 15-year-old Nischal Pandey, the ACC U-16 Elite Cup is already a big success. His third man of the match award winning performance helped helped Nepal enter the semifinals with a 85-run victory over Bahrain at the BSAM Ground.
The Chitwan boy scored 74 helping his team reach 206/9 in 40 overs after choosing to bat first and took five wickets with his left-arm spin to restrict Bahrain for 121/9.
Team Nepal celebrates a wicket. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
In Group A matches of the day, Singapore outplayed Thailand for a 175-run victory at TU Ground to put a leg in the semifinals. Malaysia beats Saudi Arabia by six wickets as leaving all three teams having chances of proceeding forward.
Opening the innings, Nischal and Sharad Khadka put Nepal in strong position. Sharad was out scoring 26 runs but Nischal continued scoring freely despite not getting good support from other end.
Hari Chaulagain hit brisk 27 to help Nepal cross 200-mark. For Bahrain, Lalith Lal and Nikhil Bolar each took two wickets.
Bahrain’s reply began in disaster as Hari claimed two wickets in two balls to make it 0/2 after three balls. Then onwards, Bahrain slowed down scoring while saving wickets until vice-captain Nischal was brought in for bowling.
Nischal Pandey proving to be a fine all-rounder. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
The left-arm spinner, who already had nine wickets in two matches, took another five wickets to take his tally to 14 wickets. He bowled eight overs giving away 28 runs.
Apart from Nischal and Hari, Sharad and Rajiv Shah also grabbed a wicket each.
Nepal! Nepal!! Students of Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidhyalaya cheer for Nepal. Photo by NepalSportsPhoto.com
At IOE, Saudi Arabia won the toss and elected to bat first. They were bowled out in 36.2 overs for 125.
Mohd Usman topscored with 37 off 50 balls while Salman Patel (25), captain Mohd Abdulla (22) and Faheen Afrad (17) contributed in Saudi’s total.
It was Syahdat Ramli who spearheaded the Malaysian bowling with 4/25 in 7.2 overs while Nik Nabil took 3/20. Tharmaraj Mohan, Azwan Idris and Md Fetri Sham also grabbed a wicket.
Malaysia needed 24.1 overs to chase down the target losing only four wickets.
Although they had a bad start losing both the openers in four overs for 21 runs, Ramli (29 off 36) and Ahmad Tajudin (unbeaten 45 off 58 balls) put them ahead.
Idris contributed 16 runs while Abdulla, Mohd Adnan, Abdul Rafie Baig and Afrad each took a wicket for Saudi.
Ramli was declared man of the match.
At TU, man of the match Vikas Rajagopal scored the second half-century in the tournament to help Singapore reach 246/5 in 40 overs. Rajagopala got 61 runs.
Thailand was bowled out for 71 in 31.4 overs with Shivan Ahuja taking three wickets.
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what a fantastic,superve,Intelligent all rounder found in NEPAL Nischal Pandey like Yuvraj Singh ,Jack kallis keep it up u have do that NISCHAL
Hi Himal,
For your kind information Yuvraj Singh is not a genuine all rounder . He is a batter who can bowl some of his left arm orthodox spin. Thats it. Some genuine all rounder of these days are the like of
Shane Watson
Shakib Al hasan
Andrew Flintoff
James Hopes
Jacob Oram
Daniel Vittory
Abdul Razzak etc
weldone guys!!!!!!!!!! keep it up.
Congratulation!
A star is rising in the horizon, let’s see what he do in future… we are watchin u nishchal….
Its like a one man show going for Nepal. Nischal Pandey is the man of the moment in this tournament. He opens batting, he has hit consecutive half centuries……. his left arm spin causes too many problem to opponent batsman, has taken 14 wickets in 3 match. Most of all, he was unknown until the beginning of the tournament. Well done Nischal and the team.
Singapore, could be the other team to watch, who are playing really good at the moment. They seem to be the only other team to match Nepal.
A fear
The senior team is lacking a genuine opener. The selection team and the CAN could see this prolific young boy, Nischal as the solution. It would be a disaster to throw such a budding talent to throw him to the deep end. They should let him mature before asking to open for the National team. He has just proven his skill at U-16 level , senior matches are completely different. Lets just hope he wont be picked for ACC Elite trophy or Div 4 just because of his performance at this level.
Well done Nischal Pandey. Fantastic performance ….. one man show……. wish you all the best for successful career in cricket. Well tried Bahrain team ……. have a nice time ..
it’s good news for all the nepalese to knew about the nepal enter in semi final .
BEST OF LUCK ALL THE BOYS FOR UPCOMING MATCHES
I’m a strictly regular spectetor of neplese cricket in nepal.. But i was missing this tournament due to my internship and exams but the next match I’m surely going to watch the match at all cost, just because I want to give an standing oviation to this great emerging talent and his performance.. May he will be a part of our dream 2015 worldcup team. God bless you nischal. You single handly are taking Nepal to the standerd your seniors set. Other look ordinary. We fans love you..
Nischal ,
I hope this is like a dream come true…
I do not remember any player getting three consecutive man of the match award in any ODI . So it is some what like a record.
great performance..
Pride of the nation and pride of Chitwan..
Best of luck for u and all the Team Nepal.
Pls do not get over excited cos the main games are still to come..
Guys keep it up ..
Cheers..
Jaya Nepal
Great Nischal, well done. i am sure you will be the best batsman as well as bolwer of the nepal. keep it up. all the best.
boy u r great! hats up………………..
hey nischal doin good job. u r the pride of nepal, chitwan,n of furtichow. keep it up …. carry ur game in future as like same
congrats
best of luck for ur coming days n coming game
hi sisir for urs kind information wat about afridi