Nepal toiled hard to beat Bhutan in the semifinal and to secure the berth in the final of the ACC U-19 Women’s Championship Cricket Tournament on Thursday.
Nepal defeated Bhutan by three wickets at Unity ground, Kuwait to reach the final of the tournament for the three consecutive editions. Nepal will meet Thailand in the title clash.
Nepal had earlier defeated Bhutan in the final of second edition on 2010 by five wickets. Thailand is also not a new opponent for Nepal as both teams had met in the league round. Nepal had defeated Thailand by four wickets.
On Thursday, Bhutan elected to bat first and scored 96/7 in 25 overs. Sonu Khadka gave a break through to Nepal as she took the first wicket of Bhutan with seven runs on board. Saraswoti Chaudhary grabbed two wickets. Dechen Wangmo and Yesney Wangmo shared a 66-run partnership to guide Bhutan for the moderate total.
Dechen scored 49 runs and Yesney scored 26 runs. Bhutan lost its four wickets for four runs in the last over of the innings. Rubina Chhetri bowled Yesney in the first ball of the last over while the other three batters were short to the crease. Nepal conceded 11 runs as extras.
In chasing the total of 97 runs, Nepal reached the target in 24.2 overs for the loss of seven wickets with the help of 33 runs as extra conceded by the Bhutanese bowlers. Nepal lost its first two wickets with two runs on board. Opener Shilu Rijal and Kabita Gautam were back to the pavilion on duck.
Anuradha Chaudhary and Indu Barma shared a 25-run partnership to build the score of Nepal. Barma gave away her wickets with just eight runs. Chaudhary and Skipper Rubina Chhetri shared a 21-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Chaudhary was bowled with 10 runs.
Mamata Chaudhary was out on duck and Chhetri was back to the pavilion with 20 runs. Sonu Khadka and Saraswoti Chaudhary shared a 32-run partnership for the seventh wicket which was the highest runs partnership in the match for Nepal. Khadka was not out on 16 runs off 18 balls with two boundaries while Santoshi Chaudhary was not out for a single run. Anju Gurung grabbed two wickets for Bhutan.