Defending champions Nepal entered the semifinals of the ACC U-19 Women´s Championship cricket defeating Qatar in the last league match by 49 runs in Singapore.
It was Nepal´s fourth straight victory in as many matches in the tournament. Nepal qualify as the winners of Group A and will play the runners-up of Group B in the semifinal on Monday.
Electing to bat first, Nepal scored 120/6 in 25 overs and restricted Qatar to 71/9.
Sita Rana and Manisha Rawal produced a 28-run opening partnership. Rawal, who became the first Nepali woman cricketer to score a half century at the international level on Thursday, was run out for five runs in Friday´s match.
However, Rana anchored the Nepali innings with 37 runs off 74 balls. Sarita Magar added 12 runs while captain Nary Thapa scored 20 runs off 18 balls with three boundaries. Mamata Thapa scored a run before getting out while Neema Tamang was run out without facing a single ball.
Trishna Singh and Sonu Khadka remained unbeaten on 11 and 6 runs respectively at the end of the innings. Qatar gave away 28 extra runs during the Nepali innings.
In reply, Qatar made a positive start with a 34-run opening stand before losing opener Ishaani Mital for 12 runs. Qatar then lost wickets in regular intervals and were able to add only 71 runs in the allotted overs. Sri Greeshama was the highest scorer with 16 runs.
Skipper Thapa and Shraddha Aryal took two wickets each for Nepal while Rubina Chhetri and Sarita Magar took a wicket each. Sita Thapa was adjudged woman-of-the-match.
The match was interrupted by rain for 20 minutes after the very first over, and Nepali skipper Thapa cited the rain-affected slow pitch for the small total.
She was happy with the batting performance of opener Sita Thapa and with the bowlers. “Manisha did well yesterday (Thursday) and Sita did it today (Friday). Our openers are gaining confidence. This is a good sign for the semifinal,” said Thapa.
However, Thapa lamented some sloppy fielding by the team and vowed to improve it in the semifinal. Thapa had dropped a catch during the match while Sarita Thapa had dropped two.
Brief Scores: Nepal 120/6 in 25 overs (Sita Rana 37, Nary Thapa 20, Sarita Magar 12, Trishna Singh 11, Akansha Anil 2/12) beat Qatar 71/9 in 25 overs (Sri Greeshama Avadhootha 16, Nary Thapa 2/8, Shraddha Aryal 2/8, Rubina Chhetri 1/11, Sarita Magar 1/18) by 49 runs.