Nepal humiliates Oman by 150 runs but qualification hopes hang on thread

KATHMANDU, April 16: Nepal U-19 cricket team’s dominating display in Malaysia continued as it humiliated Oman by 150 runs in the ongoing ICC Asia U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Tuesday.

At Selangor Turf Club , Nepal, invited to bat first scored 229 runs in allotted overs. Skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel top scored with 75 runs off 81 deliveries including five boundaries and two sixes after openers Pawan Sarraf and Rit Gautam only made 15 run partnership. Pratish GC scored 41 runs off 23 balls including two fours and four sixes while Bhim Sharki and Abhishek Basnet scored 39 and 15 runs respectively.

Muzahir Raza, Azam Ali, Sanjay Ravindra and Jeel Tanna took two wickets each for Oman.

In reply, Oman chasing the target of 230, struggled with the bat and was bundled out for 79 run in 44.1 overs. Sarraf took three wickets while GC and Surya Tamang took two wickets each. Kushal Malla, Kamal Singh Airee and Bhim Sharki took a wicket each.

For Oman, Only Amanpreet Sirah and Tanna could reach double figures both scoring 13 runs each.

This the third win for Nepal in four matches, with still a game in hand. With the win, Nepal has accumulated six points and two points below leader the United Arab Emirates who beat Singapore by nine wickets earlier.

Nepal defeated Singapore in its opening match by a huge margin of 217 runs but lost to the UAE by 1 run in an upsetting DLS method after the rain interrupted the play at the end of 30th over when the UAE was on 122 chasing a target of 247 runs. Nepal defeated Malaysia by eight wickets on Monday.

Nepal will take on Kuwait on Thursday while the UAE will face Oman the same day. In order to top the table and qualify for South Africa, the teenage Rhinos must win the next match and hope the UAE loses against Oman.

If Nepal wins and the UAE loses, then Nepal will qualify on the superiority of run rate which figures at 3.095. UAE has 1.827 run rate.

Six non-Test playing nations, Malaysia, Nepal, UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Singapore, are competing in the qualifiers to secure a spot as the 13th nation to qualify for the in U-19 World Cup 2020, to be held from 17 January to 9 February.