Nepal entered the final of the ACC U-16 Elite Cup defeating Malaysia by 32 runs at the TU Ground.
For a change, Dipendra Chand was named man of the match for scoring 43 to help Nepal reach 162 in 39.5 overs after electing to bat first. Bibek Chaudhary and Rajiv Shah each grabbed three wickets to bowl out Malaysia for 130 in 38.1 overs.
Nepal will now meet Singapore in March 16′s final at the TU Ground. Singapore beat Hong Kong by 133 runs at the IOE Ground to march into final.
Nepal won the toss and elected to bat first in the live-telecast match.
Sharad Khadka and Nischal Pandey played patiently scoring 33/0 in 10 overs to give Nepal a foundation to work on. Nischal, who was man of the match in earlier three matches, was caught on 14 off 26 balls off Md Fetri Sham.
Captain Swichan Shah failed in fourth successive match following his two ducks with six runs off 20 balls. He was first of three victims of Syahadat Ramli, who earlied had toured Nepal with the U-17 team.
Ramli also grabbed Sharad’s wicket making it 54/3 in 20 overs and Nepal seemed to be in a trouble. Sharad got 23 off 60 balls.
Dipendra Chand during his 44. Photo by Asian Cricket Council.
When he was out in 36th over, Nepal was 138/6 and a few small contributions, notably unbeaten 11 from Rajiv, seven by Susan Shrestha and eight by Hari Chaulagain took Nepal to a defendable total.
Ramli finished at 3/25 while Sham returned with 2/28.
Malaysia’s reply began well with Razlan Zalati and Amerul Hussain adding 27 in eight overs. Though they were trailing on run-rate from early on, they put Nepali bowlers under pressure until a few overs towards the end.
Nischal looked like replicating his two five-wickets hauls when he gave breakthrough taking bowling out Zalati but Bibek made it his show taking next three wickets – Ramli (7), Hussain (20) and Sham (12).
At the end of 33 overs, they were 107/5 needing 56 off last seven overs – a difficult task but could have been completed with someone getting quick 20s. There were none though.
Devendra Somare grabbed two wickets in 34th over – that of Tharmaraj Mohan (17) and Azlan Idris (16) breaking their 33-run stand and turning the match in Nepal’s way.
Rajiv cleaned up the tail taking three wickets in his seven balls after going wicketless in his first three overs to end Malaysia’s innings 32 runs short of Nepal’s total.
Malaysia now meets Hong Kong for the third-place playoff at BSAM Ground on Monday.
SINGAPORE THRASH HONG KONG
The other semifinal was totally opposite and it brought a lopsided victory for Singapore at IOE Ground. The only setback Singapore suffered was on the first over when they lost Ishaan Shekhar after electing to bat first.
Keshav Seshadri and Vikas Rajgopala added 72 runs in 14 overs to give Singapore a dream start with scoreboard reading 75/1. Seshadri was stumped at 37 off 45 balls, a knock consisting of seven fours.
Rajgopala scored 68 off 92 balls with seven fours as Singapore utilised the foundation to play aggressively and got a very good total of 230/9.
Amandeep Singh was pick of Hong Kong player who got 3/49.
Hong Kong lost the openers early in score of 14 – thanks to Shekhar who picked up both wickets. Kinchit Shah (23) and Miten Khatri (15) tried the recovery with 48-run partnership with a chuck of runs coming from extras but introduction of Shivan Ahuja and Saisrikar Pogaru undid the Hong Kong soon after.
Amandeep (13) got a few runs while four others were out without scoring as Ahuja took three wickets and Pogaru two to conclude the innings at 97 in 30.1 overs.
KUWAIT SECURES SEVENTH POSITION
At BSAM, Kuwait registered the first win and secured seventh position defeating Thailand by 68 runs.
Batting first, Kuwait scored 159/7 in 40 overw wiht Nasir Rashid getting 63 off 122 balls. Abdul Jabar contributed 31 off 48 while Zakari Ali (11) and Avinash Mohan (12) contributed a few runs for their cause.
Mukesh Saraik was the pick of the bowlers taking 2/27. Aman Dubey, Kushal Shah, Siddhant Anand and Witsanukorn Tapimithai each picked up a wicket for Thailand.
Rashid bowled the tournament best figure of 6/29 as Thailand batting tumbled and ended at 90 off 21.4 overs. Jabar grabbed 3/23 while Mohan took a remaining wicket.
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A fighting win against a decent side.
A failure of batsmen again. Although this side this been scoring runs above 4 per over, its still not good. To provide real winning chance,these boys must start scoring 5/5.5 an over.
Tuesdays’ final will be even more tougher. Singapore has scored 200+ in every match they have batted first. They are another team who have not lost any match in the tournament yet. It would be really difficult for Nepal to win against Singapore.
Best of Luck boys !!
itz simply coz singapore hasn’t faced strong team like like nepal. even malaysia hadn’t been scoring lesser scores until nepal concluded them in 130 runs.
So common boys gotta prove ur strength on tuesday.
hi best of luck to u all proceed on good ok
well done nepal , play watch fully againest Singapore cos they are also one of the best team, good luck
Nepal is a great in asian cricket. Who is challange for every one in Young age cricket group.
Good Luck for the final match against Singapore!! Have a nice time and win the Title as well
Congrats Kuwait !!! Mabroug …..
Congratulations on the victory but the real test will be against the Singaporeans who have been almost flawless in this tournament. The run scoring should be at a bit more brisker pace for us to win the match…hopefully the winning momentum will continue for one more match.
Best of luck…our nation desperately needs some things to celebrate!!
Love cricket, live cricket!
Nepal made a rarely acceptable target, but kudos to the players, especially their bowlers did well to restrict the Malaysian team.
Nepal’s duty gets more harder as they are going to face the favourate of the tournament in the final.
Singapore is a good team, they scored good in all their matches.
Nepal’s bowler must strive hard to put a limit on their victories.
Best of luck Nepal, we Afghans support you as sincere neighbor.
Thanx bro for ur support.. We support afganstan as well bcoz we both r running through our bad political situations. Hope we win today..
congraz guys.. keep up the good work but be carefully in fianl.. nepal rocks in cricket.
well done nepal,
singapore is a good side and thus nepal must beat them to show that they are the BEST!
Dhruva
Mayur Vihar Phase 3, Delhi
This season has been very favourable and auspicious for Nepali cricket. Just a couple of weeks ago, Nepal had won Pepsi ICC WCL Division-5 Cricket Tournament in a truimphant fashion and also qualifying for Pepsi ICC WCL Division-4 Cricket Tournament. And here we have, our young U-16 colts playing first international cricket tournament displaying grit and determination of supreme example. It seems they have taken a cue from their senior team notwitstanding their first time appearance at the International level. One must say, Nepal has brighter days in the game of cricket and it is up to the concerned cricket officials to ensure players are groomed when they are young and avail job opportunities to senior group players, when these young players come off their age so that they could continue playing cricket without having to think otherwise. Coming back to this tournament, needless to say, Nischal Pandey is the find of the tournament and he should be properly groomed and handled to enable him to continue his exploits at other levels – U-19 and senior levels as well.
The grand finale between two teams Singapore and Nepal should be a fascinating one. Since both sides are unbeaten so far, it will be a keen tussle to see who emerges victories; when these sides clash tomorrow at Tribhuwan University Cricket Ground, Kirtipur. For the first 3 games, Nepal’s victory revolved around Nischal Pandey’s exploits, so it would be incumbent on the other players to deliver goods as well as they did in last game. For Singaporeans, they are also upbeat and their morale is sky rocketing. Under these circumstances, the team who handles pressure and take the bull by the horns should win this tournament. Having said this, in a sporting event, both the sides never win as one has to win and another has to accept defeat. But seeing performance of these sides, I would say the real winner is the game of cricket and popularity it is gaining in Nepal. No doubt, tomorrow’s final would be a capacity crowd. So, I would like to see our spectators behave properly and do not indulge any sort of misdemeanour, which has been a regular feature whenever Nepal wins or losses. I am not saying all the spectators indulge in shenanigans, but because of a certain section of the crowd, our Nepali cricket’s image gets tarnished. Such repeated instances may dissuade ACC and ICC officials considering future cricket tournaments in Nepal. So, I hope everybody will understand the importance of controlled behaviour no matter our team wins or losses.
For our young colts, as I said before you blokes have the capability to win laurels and winning this one more game tomorrow against Singapore should gladden the hearts of Nepali cricket aficionados. Best of luck and God bless you all.
nepal is great in asian young division crickrt.
Well done Zakaria Liaqat Ali wicket keeper and opener of kuwait national team for his fastest half century only for 36 balls
Go singapore! bet Nepal come inn v can do it! Go Sai! Go Ishaan!
it gonna be a hard fighting between Nepal and Singapore match today..Almost Nepal are being favorites in Age group tournament previoulsly and we can hope so in present as well as in future..There is no doubt whether Nepal win or loss,the main thing is that We had found the tallent like Nischal pandey and company from this tournament..And there is no doubt that Nepal future remains brighter than the bright in age level and senior..
Sport ministry have to know about the cricket and its craze in Nepal.Almost cricket has overtaken football as a country’s first sport.so it need to have a intrest od govt. in cricket and they should take care of players who can take Nepal to World cup,ODI nation and can also put the country in Test nation..
WE have skill and tallent but doesnt have something to secure our future..So its govt. role and duty to make cricket a way to run daily life for Nepalese cricketers..Because we dont have any great success in any sports like in cricket…
Anyway all the best to the team..Rock on the final match against singapore..
WELL DONE NEPAL,I AM PROUD OF MY SALO SARAD KHADKA WHO IS OPENNING BATS MAN OF NEPAL Y-16,I HOPE HE WILL MAKE 100 RUNS TODAY ON FINIAL.
nepal will win by 6 wicket if nepal bat first,if nepal ball first he will win by 25 runs
Hi nepalese national players are the offspring of ‘Bir Gorkhali’ they r warrior.it’s a war with singapore.we don’t have word ‘loose’ in our dictionary. come on we can do it.best of luck.