Nepal survived a spirited Malaysian run-chase to set a date with Afghanistan for the ACC Trophy Elite 2010 title with an eight-run victory at Hubara, Kuwait.
Nepal displayed some good batting performance to scored 271/6 in 50 overs. Malaysia reached within a touching distance of it, before falling out on 263 in 49.4 overs.
Suresh Navaratnam scored a century leading the run-chase but that was only enough to earn him man of the match award. The end-result meant the brilliant performance of the 1998 finalist came to an end.
Malaysia suffered an early blow losing opener Damith Warusavithana on the first ball of the innings and then Ahman Faiz the next over to Paras Khadka.
From 1/2, captain Suhan Kumar took the charge. He added 44 with veteran Rakesh Madhavan (7) and 82 with Navaratnam to repair the damage.
Both Madhavan and Kumar fell to off-spinner Sanjam Regmi, albeit in long distance. Kumar got 70 off 89 deliveries with six fours.
Shakti Gauchan and Rahuk BK took a wicket each as Malaysia went down to 127/3 to 146/6 and Nepal sensing the victory.
But Navaratnam and lower order had other thoughts. Hassan Ghulam got 19 off just 16 balls with two sixes before Basant Regmi undid him.
Wicket-keeper Shafiq Sharif was more aggressive hitting out 31 off 18 balls with five fours and his partnership with Navaratnam yielding 82 runs in no time.
Navaratnam played a few shots himself to reach the century but he was out a little earlier. Paras took his wicket when he was at 115 off 103 balls. He hit six four and three sixes in his praiseworthy knock.
In last over, Malaysia needed 14 for victory. Two runs later, Sharif was run out and Basant grabbed the last wicket to end the things in Nepal’s favor.
Earlier, Malaysia invited Nepal to bat first on the flat wickets. Anil Mandal (4) went early but Mahesh Chhetri and Shakti Gauchan partnered 87 runs for second wicket to build a foundation for big score.
Chhetri was out on 43 off 86 balls while Shakti completed his fourth half-century for the national team before S Yusof got rid of him. Shakti made 52 off 57 balls with four boundaries.
Captain Paras has been out-of-form in the event and that continued as he could only add couple of runs as Nepal went down to 120/4 from 98/1.
Vice-captain Gyanendra Malla and Sharad Vesawkar then did the wonders. While Gyanendra played a role of quiet partner, Sharad played with dominance and skills of a perfect batsman.
Sharad reached his half-century with a boundary while Gyanendra missed the landmark by a run after he was bowled by Navaratnam on 49 off 61 balls.
Sharad deserved a century but was three-runs short unbeaten when the match ended. Sharad’s 97 not out was made in 66 balls with 10 fours and a six. Dipendra Chaudhary contributed 14 runs.
This is the second instance Nepal has reached the final of the ACC Trophy. In 2002, it reached the final defeating Malaysia in the semifinal by 25 runs but lost to UAE in the title clash.
| Round | Semi Final |
| Toss | Malaysia |
| Umpires | Farid Malik (UAE) & Riaz Chaudhary (Kuwait) |
| Scorers | Maznah Maulod & Lakshmi Hariharan (India) |
| Player / Match | Navratnam, Suresh |
| Match Referee | K. Murali (Kuwait) |
| Nepal Innings 271/6 (Overs 50) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| M Chhetri+ | c S Sharif | b E A Aziz | 43 | 86 | 3 | 0 |
| A Mandal | c R Madhavan | b S Navratnam | 4 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| SP Gauchan | c S Sharif | b S Yusof | 52 | 57 | 4 | 0 |
| G Malla | b S Navratnam | 49 | 61 | 2 | 0 | |
| P Khadka* | c S Yusof | b E A Aziz | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| S Vesawkar | not out | 97 | 66 | 10 | 1 | |
| D Chaudhary | st S Sharif | b S Yusof | 14 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
| M Alam | not out | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Regmi | dnb | - | ||||
| B Regmi | dnb | - | ||||
| R Biwhwakarma | dnb | - | ||||
| extras | (b0 lb6 w3 nb0) | 9 | ||||
| TOTAL | 6 wickets for | 271 |
| FOW |
| 1-11(A Mandal) 2-98(M Chhetri) 3-116(SP Gauchan) 4-120(P Khadka) 5-235(G Malla) 6-268(D Chaudhary) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| S Navratnam | 10 | 0 | 59 | 2 | 2 | - |
| H Ghulam | 9 | 1 | 51 | 0 | 1 | - |
| D Warusavithana | 4 | 0 | 18 | 0 | - | - |
| S Yusof | 10 | 0 | 48 | 2 | - | - |
| N Arifin | 8 | 0 | 39 | 0 | - | - |
| E A Aziz | 9 | 0 | 50 | 2 | - | - |
| Malaysia Innings 263 All Out (Overs 49.4) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| D Warusavithana | b M Alam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| R Madhavan | c M Chhetri | b S Regmi | 7 | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| A Faiz | c A Mandal | b P Khadka | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| S Kumar* | lbw | b S Regmi | 70 | 89 | 6 | 0 |
| S Navratnam | c S Regmi | b P Khadka | 115 | 103 | 6 | 3 |
| A Arudin | c P Khadka | b SP Gauchan | 7 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| E A Aziz | b R Biwhwakarma | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| H Ghulam | c D Chaudhary | b B Regmi | 19 | 16 | 0 | 2 |
| S Sharif+ | run out | 31 | 18 | 5 | 0 | |
| S Yusof | b B Regmi | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| N Arifin | not out | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b1 lb2 w5 nb0) | 8 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 263 |
| FOW |
| 1-0(D Warusavithana) 2-1(A Faiz) 3-45(R Madhavan) 4-127(S Kumar) 5-142(A Arudin) 6-146(E A Aziz) 7-173(H Ghulam) 8-255(S Navratnam) 9-257(S Sharif) 10-263(S Yusof) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| M Alam | 5 | 3 | 16 | 1 | - | - |
| P Khadka | 10 | 0 | 42 | 2 | 2 | - |
| S Regmi | 10 | 0 | 60 | 2 | 1 | - |
| B Regmi | 8.4 | 0 | 58 | 2 | 1 | - |
| SP Gauchan | 10 | 0 | 44 | 1 | - | - |
| R Biwhwakarma | 6 | 0 | 40 | 1 | 1 | - |
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Woowww wht a thrilling win… Wht a marvolous batting, reall really amazing…
Its really good to see batting improvement. But im quite disappointed with the selectors tht why did thy keep 4 spinnes jst by removing alrounder Bnod Das? We won this match only bcoz of good batting performance otherwise there were no chance for us. If we had jst one more pacer either BINOD or AMRIT it would create extra presure to the opponents so tht we might hav bundled them very early. we had got success in the very 1st over too, from the opner ALAM but a pacer lack to support him form the another end. Thank to the batsmen who played well and made victory. Thts a batting pitch and we see evry spinners economy is not good except Shakti. Such type of strategy is not going to help evry time thts why plan and prepare properly b4 the match starts. Hop it will not repeat in the final against Afghanistan.
Good luck n whsh u all the best against AFGHAN.
A real nepali
Congrats guys, after all your Formidable team won the semi final, they were a little bit used to losing crucial and vital matches as i had noticed, but today they broke that losing streak. I’m happy to see nepal in final and wish them good luck to play well against our team. As an Afghan i will support my team but i wouldn’t be unhappy if they lose the match to nepal. It’s so saddening that their is no place for the finalists in asia cup this time, it would have been very nice watching Afg and nepal playing against full members. One thing i want to give you guys as a hint, don’t leave Muhammad Nabi, Muhammad Shahzad and Karim Sadiq to play well and try to restrict them from fast scoring as they deal abundantly with boundaries.
And if nepal win the toss, they should bat first, because Afg is a little shacky in chasing.
And of course Afg should try to put a limit to nepal’s opening as soon as possible, if they want to win the match.
at last i should say that winning and losing are parts of a game and one should not become very sad about it to put too much stress on his/her mind.
Nepal is a good side and i wish them get ODI status and repeat the fairytale of Afg from asia again.
with regards
Thanks
it will be a cracking final!!!
@Khushal
Bravo…Thanks …You are a true cricket lover
Congrats Nepal for the deserving win and Best of Luck for the Final..
@ sa –yes we can change the middle order as the situation .@khusal –thnx man you are too nice.Do you guys have any afghani sites about cricket ?? If you can support us and write good about us why cant i?? kind of inspired by you mate.
we need binod das back…if we have to win the final we need binod back………just just bring him back…….plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
i cant understand why alam bowled only 5 overs?????his economy was perfect 3 in an over and got a wicket as well..why paras didnt bowl Alam?????? what was wrong with the skipper???
It seems he does not have faith in pace bowling?
that may caused, binod out of the eleven.
My heart beat reading in the last 5 overs
46th ovr………..120/80
47th ovr………..140/60
48th ovr………..160/40
49th ovr………..180/20
50th ovr………..200/0
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Almost death bhai sakya thiyo……………………………..
After Nepal Has won…………………………………………..100/100
deeeeeeee………………
Congrats Guys…………………
nice one bro……I was almost in the same scenario. I even closed Cricketkuwait for 2 minutes to break the jinx and ya that worked wonders…The Malaysian lost the century maker and I kept on closing and opening the site and we kept on getting wickets…until the final nail was struck in the coffin.
it’s gonna be great final…NEPAL vs AFGHANISTAN..gud luck guys..but how did u know that there is no place for the finalists in the ASIA CUP guys????i wanna be sure about it..any ideas???
anyway go boys..it’s a revenge..beat AFGHANISTAN !!!!
maile exact soure chai birsiyo tara ,maile quilification chai hunna bhane kura padheko ho…
its a wonderful messege, nepalile bating garnai sakdaina vanneko mukhama bujho lagyo
congratulation NEPAl, hey whats wrong to skipper paras ? why he did not gave ball to ALAM, after his 5 over? as he was performing so good, very economy and had taken couple of eairly wicket. common paras do not repid this type of stupidity again, otherwise we will lose the match.
Everyone must realize the situation in the match against Malaysia. Now boys don’t think else about Afganis, they are too similar to we. So, don’t go to past result just concentrate in your game and win this trophy as winner. I am sure you will do it for whole Nepalese.
Good Luck to both team.
Shakti you are playing really well. You should continue to play well till Nepal reaches to World Cup 2015. You are Rahul Dravid for Nepal.
nepali captain paras khadka le mehboob alam lai baal nadinu ko karan malai k jasto lagchha bhane…paras le spinner lai dherai biswas garchhan..pitch dry ra wide bhayeka le spinner lai badi use gareka hun.nepali pacer bhanda spinner dherai sharp chhan bhanera ho…but. mehboob le pahilo ball mai wkt leka thiye ra confident level 1dam high thiyo.ma pani shocked bhako thiye.mehboob alam lai just 5 overs matra garayeko ma.. anyway nepal le jityo ra yesaima khusi chhu…bholi ko pratikchhya ma chhu..k hune ho k hune ho bhairako chha,,,,heeheee..all the best nepal..we all nepalese are wid u..
JAY NEPAL.
iam very happy i wnat binod das back in te eee,,m