Nepal´s experiments with new opening pair ended in a nine-run defeat against Tanzania in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4 at Centro Sportivo Ca´Nova, Medicina, Italy on Tuesday.
After a long gap, Mehboob Alam was asked to open with Anil Mandal and the pair were out without scoring as Nepal were bundled out for 108 in 44.1 overs chasing 117 for victory.
For Nepal, vice-captain Gyanendra Malla topscored with 41, which five of the players did not open their account including Sharad Vesawkar, Binod Das and Amrit Bhattarai. Shakti Gauchan scored two.
Rahul Biswokarma, who earlier bowled a superb spell of 5/18, and Basant Regmi tried to push Nepal to victory but their last-wicket partnership ended in 16 runs. Rahul got bowled on 7 while Basant remained unbeaten on 7.
Paras Khadka (24) and Mahesh Chhetri (16) scored a few runs but it was not enough as Tanzania rode on splendid bowling performances of Kiseto (3/19), Rehmtullah (3/25) and Nassoro (2/18).
Earlier, Nepal elected to bowl first and restricted Tanzania for 117 in 47.3 overs with spinner Rahul Biswokarma being the pick of the bowler with 5/18.
Biswokarma, who was introduced late in the innings, missed a hattrick chance but will be on for another chance when he plays next match as he took last two Tanzanian wickets in successive balls.
Basant Regmi supported him well with 2/23 in his 10 overs while Mehboob Alam, Amrit Bhattarai and Paras Khadka each grabbed a wicket. Although Binod Das (0/9) and Shakti Gauchan (0/9) went wicket-less, they dried up runs.
For Tanzania, who had a slow but steady start, opener Khalifa scored 46 off 82 balls with three fours and two sixes while Nassoro got 18 with a six. Other contributions came from Kiongozi (12) and Abdallah (11).