Nepal Wrap up Under-19 WC Qualifiers on a high
Scotland claim trophy; Ireland, Afghanistan, PNG, Namibia also book tickets Down Under
Nepal finished second behind champion Scotland in the 10-team Qualifiers. With seven wins from nine matches,Nepal accumulated 14 points,while scotland claimed the trophy with 16 points. Scotland suffered their only loss of the tournament at the hands of Canada in their first match.
Hosts Ireland finished third, while Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Namibia were other teams in top six earning tickets to the ICC U-19 World Cup to held in Australia next year. The USA and Canada,who finished behind Namibia on inferior run rate, failed to quality for the World Cup along with Kenya and Vanuatu.
On Tuesday,Nepal amassed 264-9 in 50 overs and packed the USA to 165 in 44.1 overs. The USA wear hit hard when medium pacer Avinash Karn reduced them 2-2 in the first over. Karn trapped Cameron Mirza for a golden duck with the fifth ball of the innings and earned the LBW verdict against Abhijit Joshi with the next ball.
Greg Sewdial denied the hat trick to Avinash, but failed to build much-needed partnership. The USA skipper fell to Krishna Karki for four runs with the team reeling at 15-3 inside six overs.Steven Taylor and Pranay Puri offered resistance with 63-run stand for the fourth wicket before the duo returned to the pavilion in the space of six balls. Taylor, who top scored for the USA with 58-ball 52 with seven fours, fell at the hands of Nepal Skipper Prithu Baskota, while Sagar Pun dismissed Suri(13) reducing the Americans to 78-5.
Left-arm spinner Rahul BK then came into act taking four of the last five USA wickets to guide Nepal to easy victory. Rahul finished with 4-24 off 8.1 overs, while Avinash and Prithu claimed two each. Krishna and Sagar also pocketed apiece.
Earlier, Naresh Buhayer and Pradeep Airee Shared a partnership of 113 runs for the fifth wicket and No.8 Krishna hammered 17-ball 45 as Nepal crossed the 250-run mark for the third time in the event.
Nepal had a bad start when they lost three quick wickets despite openers Sagar and Fijlur Rahaman added 30 runs inside six overs. Pun was first to, caught by wicketkeeper Taylor off the bowling of Salman Ahmad in the sixth over and the 30-1 soon became 49-3 when Rahaman (26) and Prithu (two) were dismissed in the space of four runs.
Naresh added 29 runs with Rajesh Pulami (16) for the fourth wicket and was joined by Pradeep.Th duo hammered 113 runs in 126 balls, taking Nepal's scores close to 200-run mark.
Ahmed separated the pair when he had Naresh stumped by Taylor for 76 runs. Naresh's third half century of the event came off 94 balls that included five fours and three sixes.
The dismissal of Pradeep and Rahul brought Krishna at the crease and the tailender hammered shots all over the grounds with Nepal fetching 62 runs in the last five overs.Pradeep hit three fours and as many sixes in his 67-ball 57.
Krishna and Rupesh Shrivastav (not our six) then added 48 runs for the eighth wicket in three overs before Krishna's innings came to and end. He struck three fours and five sixes in just 17 balls.
Salman Ahmad and Hammad Shahid took three wickets each of the USA, while Jodhbir Sandhu picked two. Rahul claimed a total of 21 wickets in the tournament and was second to Manny Aulakh-also 21 wickets-just to see the latter better him in average.
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