Nepali U-19 boys cruise to second victory

Nepal displayed a superb all round performance to crush Qatar by nine wickets in the ACC U-19 Elite for their second consecutive victory at the Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Sunday.

Nepal bundled out Qatar for a paltry 93 runs in 36.3 overs after Avinash Karn picked up four wickets. Opener Amit Shrestha then smashed 70 not out from just 33 balls as Nepal raced to 94-1 in just 10.5 overs.

Nepal leapfrogged Malaysia on net run rate to go atop the table after they were tied on four points with the hosts. 

The game was all but over Qatar after Amit gave a solid start to Nepal adding 56 runs in 7.4 overs with Nischal Pandey, who was the only wicket to fall for 12 runs. Hari Shankar Shah was eight not out when Nepal cruised home.

Amit, doing most of the job in Nepal’s chase, clobbered 11 boundaries and one six in his scintillating knock.Earlier, Qatar lost their opener Maaz Undre (five) – bowled by Avinash – with 21 runs on the board and recovered to reach 40 in 10.1 overs.

However, once spinner Sushan Bhari got rid of another opener Syed Shah, Qatar lost their last nine wickets for just 53 runs. Uzair Amir top scored for Qatar with 24 runs from 67 balls that included two boundaries, while Abdullah Mohammad (16) and Jahangir Ehsan (12) were the only remaining batsmen to make runs in double figures. 

Avinash returned with the figures of 4-26 from 7.3 overs, while Sushan Bhari bowled a tight spell to return with 2-11 from six overs that included three maiden.

Skipper Bhuwan Karki also bowled a tight spell giving away just 12 runs in his eight overs picking up a wicket. Nishcal also had one scalp, while two Qatar batsmen were run out.