Spinners shared eight wickets to bowl out Qatar for 96 runs in 20 overs as Nepal registered a six-wicket consolation win in the ACC Twenty20 Elite Cup on Thursday.
With Thursday’s results, Afghanistan and UAE from Group A and Oman from Group B have confirmed their berth to the semifinals. Kuwait is certain to qualify.
Only a couple of super-miraculous results could put Nepal or Malaysia ahead of Kuwait in the net run-rate. Kuwait’s net run rate after four matches is +2.95 while Nepal is at -0.20 and Malaysia at -0.21.
At Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Qatar won the toss and elected to bat first.
They lost opener in the first over as Binod Bhandari ran Habib Zada out in Binod Das’ over. Binod bowled other opener and captain Umer Taj (8) in the match’s third over to make it 10/2. Irfan Hussain and Tamoor Sajjad then partnered 38 runs before the spinners started dominating.
Hussain topscored with 32 in 39 balls while Sajjad got 19 in 21 deliveries. Left arm spinners Shakti Gauchan and Basant Regmi got each one of them and four more.
Shakti finished at 3/19 while Basant was even better finishing at 3/11. Off spinner Sanjam Regmi took the last two wickets as Qatar failed to reach three-digit.
In reply, Nepal reached the target in 18.3 overs losing four wickets. Gyanendra Malla scored unbeaten 39 while Dipendra Chaudhary got 28.
Mehboob Alam (10), Paresh Lohani (9) and Paras Khadka (8) could not do much. A Khan spearheaded Qatari bowling with two wickets.
Nepal meets Bahrain, a team without a win in four matches in the last match, on Saturday, Nov 28, at the Al Dhaid Cricket Village.
Nepal has every chance to finish third in the group and compete against the winner of the match between Saudi Arabia and Singapore for the fifth place.
Kuwait unofficially confirmed their places after a big win over Bahrain. They chased Bahrain’s 174/5 in 12.3 overs losing just a wicket with Khalid Butt scoring 142 not out off 53 balls with 18 fours and 10 sixes. Oman confirmed their berth by defeating Malaysia by 35 runs after scoring 197/5.
In Group A matches, UAE defeated China by 209 runs after scoring 236/5 and bowling them out for 27 in 15.1 overs. Afghanistan beat Saudi Arabia by 8 wickets chasing their 72 in 8 overs. It was fourth win in four matches for both the teams.