Nepali Sports Dot Com

Chiang Mai, Thailand, December 17 –
Kuwait gave Nepal its toughest match of the ACC U-19 Tournament so far as it went down to Nepal by four wickets on Wednesday at the Ghmkhana Ground. Nepal had a good start as it won the toss, elected to field and got Kuwait out for 36 runs in 15 overs.

Come batting and Nepal had a tough time despite getting the winning runs in the 13th over with four wickets to spare. Nepal had an ordinary start with the bat as opener Maya Rawat the highest run getter of the tournament for the team got out for a duck. She was bowled by player-of-the-match Priyada Murali when the team had three runs on the board. Priyada then bowled Trishna Singh who managed to hit two runs. The batters had a tough time playing the slow balls from Kuwait.

Sabina Karki trying to lift the low ball of Siobhan Gomez got caught by Priyada at square leg. Sabina faced fourteen balls for her four runs. Sushmita Chaudhary was Priyada’s next prey as she got Sushmita trapped leg before. The Nepali eves unfamiliar with the slow –low ball they got from the opponents returned back to the pavilion in a hurry.

Binu Magar batting at four runs was sent back to the pavilion by Siobhan. Rekha Thapa then went on to the crease got a couple of runs before getting bowled by Alina D’silva. Skipper Nary Thapa steadied the innings guided her team to victory. Nary hit the much needed boundaries to the team back on track. She faced seven balls for her 12 runs all of which came in boundaries.

Sita Magar faced four balls for her four runs. Priyada in her five overs spell gave away three runs and grabbed three wickets. Siobhan got two wickets and Alina took one for Kuwait.

Earlier, Rekha Rawal gave Nepal the first the first break through as got Alina D’Silva out for duck in the first over. Sita sent Priyada back to the pavilion two wickets latter and Kuwait had four runs on the board.

Keshari Chaudhary got hold of superb caught and bowled of Anisha D’Silva. Nary caught Siobhan batting on 18 of Trishna Singh as Kuwiat lost its eight wicket with 35 runs on the board. Apart from Khansa (4) and Siobhan (18) Afia Khan, Anisha D’Silva, Elavarsi Rajesekar and Fatema Karjiwala got a run each for Kuwait.

Rekha Rawal grabbed three wickets for Nepal while, Sonu Khada and Keshari Chaudhary got two each and Sita and Trisha got a wicket a piece.

Kuwait coach Murali Kutticode hailed Nepal’s bowling and went on to say ten runs more from his batters could have turned the game around. “Nepal bowled brilliantly to get us all out however we did give them the fright with the ball”
Nepal’s coach Jamil Ansari said he was happy with the bowlers but would need to work hard with the batting. “As always our bowlers own the match for us. We need to work hard with our batting,”said the coach.

Nepal plays it last group match against China on Saturday.