Nepali youngsters gave a perfect New Year present to the cricket fans registering a six-wicket win over Afghanistan to top the Group D of the Asian Cricket Council’s Under-17 Asia Cup league match at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium of Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates today.
Afghanistan, which was finally cleared yesterday night of visa problem, elected to bat and scored 128 runs in 36 overs. With help of unbeaten 47 from man of the match Antim Thapa, Nepal crossed the score in 23rd over losing four wicket. Earlier on Monday, Nepal beat Qatar by nine wickets.
Nepal will play the quarterfinal on April 19. Nepal will meet the loser of Hong Kong vs Bahrain game in the quarters. They both have defeated Oman by 9 wickets and are scheduled to meet on April 16.
Nepal had a aggressive start to the run-chase scoring 44 runs in 4.4 overs before lunch while pursuing an average total by opponent. At 44, Nepal lost Dipen Shrestha, run out by Mirhamza, after scoring 14 off 8 balls with two fours. After lunch, other opener Anil Mandal went without adding to his pre-lunch score of 16.
Gyanendra Malla, scored 11 before returning before Antim did his best. Antim added 18 with Gyanendra and crucial 37 runs with captain Shashi Keshari. Keshari was the last man out at 105 scoring 10 runs of 12 balls. Rom Shrestha (1*) partnered Antim for victory. Antim scored 47 off 51 balls with nine fours and took the man of the match award.
Earlier, Afghanistan, who had a camp in Peshawar of Pakistan, had a brilliant start. They started with a boudary off Amrit Bhattarai. After three overs they were 24 without loss and Amrit, who was the victim giving away 30 runs in 3 overs, was hit for four boundaries in two overs. His partner Chandra Saud slowed down the things a bit forcing Sajid (19) to edge a delivery to Dipen.
Hashimat and Jauid then added 37 runs for second wicket to take Afghanistan to 61/1. But things changed for them after spinners came into attack. Leg-spinner Shashi Keshari bowled Jauid (15) while medium pacer Rom Shrestha bowled Zard Ali for duck. Shashi then castled Murad for naught while Angel Acharya had Aimal as Afghanistan went reeling at 74/5.
Hashimat, who topscored in the match with 49 off 85 balls with six fours, took Aghanistan to 120 partnering 46 runs with Khalid for sixth wicket. But unfortunately he missed his half-century by a run owing to brilliant fielding by Sharad Pokharel. That started their downfall as they lost last five wickets for eight runs – two of them going to Chandra Saud in the 36th over of the match.
“Afghanistan proved much more stronger side than we have thought,” coach Roy Dias said after the match. “They began well but spinners pegged them down.”
“However, I feel that we should have won the game by 8 wickets,” he added. “Gyanendra and Shashi threw away their wickets.”
(Binod Pandey, the contributing editor of NepalCricket.com who is in UAE to cover the event wrote this report.)