KATHMANDU, Sept 4: Nepal lost to Hong Kong with three wickets in the final group match of the ongoing Asia Cup Qualifier in Malaysia.

Choose to bat first after winning the toss, Nepal had posted a target of 96 runs before Hong Kong by losing all wickets in 37.5 overs.

Chasing the target set by Nepal, Hong Kong, was able to reach it in 32.3 overs losing seven wickets.

With this defeat, Nepal’s dream of playing Asia Cup Cricket has been shattered. Captain of Hong Kong, Anshuman Rath scored highest 52 runs while Kinchit Shah of Hong Kong made 11 runs towards batting for Hong Kong’s victory.

However, Sandeep Lamichhane of Nepal alone claimed five wickets.

KATHMANDU, Sept 4: Nepal has posted a target of 96 runs before Hong Kong in the final group match of the ongoing 2018 Asia Cup Qualifier held on Tuesday.

Choose to bat first after winning the toss in the match held at Bangi Cricket Ground at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nepal scored only 95 runs after losing all wickets in 37.5 overs.

Only Anil Kumar Sah, Arif Sheikh and Captain Paras Khadka scored double digit runs in today’s match. Out of four matches, Nepal has won two matches.

The 29 March final follows semi-finals at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Auckland’s Eden Park, organisers said on Tuesday.

Christchurch, which has scrambled to rebuild facilities in the wake of a ruinous earthquake in 2011, has provisionally been awarded three pool matches in the tournament hosted by Australia and New Zealand from 14 February to 29 March.

Local cricket authorities have submitted plans for a redevelopment of Hagley Park in New Zealand’s second largest city, and are awaiting the outcome of an Environment Court hearing as to whether they can proceed.

If approved, the city would host the opening match of the tournament between 1996 World Cup champions Sri Lanka and New Zealand on 14 February.

“We haven’t had international cricket, Test matches for five years and one dayers for three years so we just have to get the environment court to okay it to get cricket back to Christchurch,” the former New Zealand bowler Richard Hadlee told local television at the New Zealand launch of the event.

“It’s important for the city, for the people and for youngsters too who idolise the players. It gives them the chance to see them and those three games will be hugely critical.”

Organisers said the pool matches would be split evenly between both countries with seven cities hosting three pool matches each.

“The last World Cup was the most successful ever … We decided that every team should play in both countries and that’s what we’ve gone and done,” the world cup chief executive John Harnden said.

Australia’s Sydney Cricket Ground, Adelaide Oval and the MCG would host three of the quarter-finals, while Wellington would host the fourth quarter-final.

The 2015 World Cup will feature the 10 full member nations of the International Cricket Council plus Ireland, who have won qualification, and three other nations.

Two of the teams will be determined via a qualifying tournament in New Zealand in January 2014.

Each of the 14 teams had been divided into two pools where they play each other in a round-robin format before the top four from each pool qualify for the quarter-finals.

England took three late Australia wickets to assume a commanding position going into the final day of an enthralling opening Ashes Test.

Chasing a target of 311, a record score to win a Trent Bridge Test, Australia were going well on 161-3.

But in a potentially decisive twist in the final hour, England removed captain Michael Clarke, Steven Smith and Phil Hughes in the space of 18 balls to reduce the tourists to 174-6 at the close, still 137 runs adrift of the finish line.

England had earlier added 49 runs to their overnight total to post 375 all out, with Ian Bell completing his 18th Test century and Stuart Broad scoring 65.

Broad, the subject of a major controversy over his decision not to walk on Friday,followed up with an impressive display with the ball, breaking Australia’s 84-run opening partnership and removing Clarke for 23 in the closing stages of a sweltering day in which England had toiled for long stretches without reward.

Pitching the ball up to Clarke, Broad drew a faint edge from the Australia captain and wheeled away in celebration as Matt Prior took the catch.

The festivities were put on hold as the umpires verified that the ball had carried into Prior’s gloves and were delayed still further when Clarke called for a review. But when Hot Spot showed the smallest of marks on his bat, the skipper had to go.

The dismissal of Australia’s leading batsman marked a total shift in the momentum of the match as Smith was trapped right in front of his stumps by Graeme Swann, who had previously bowled 22 wicketless overs.

Two overs later, Australia were six wickets down as Hughes – who scored an unbeaten 81 in the first innings – was struck on the back pad after missing a spinning delivery from Swann and given out on review.

KOLKATA: Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday night announced his retirement from the cash-richIndian Premier League soon after Mumbai Indians won their maiden title defeatingChennai Super Kings by 23 runs in the final.

“For World Cup I had to wait for 21 years but for this I had to wait for only six years. Also this is special for me as I won’t be playing in IPL next season,” Tendulkar said at the end of Mumbai Indians’ triumph.

“I think this is the right time to stop playing IPL. Just got to accept the reality that this would be my last season. I am happy that the sending was perfect,” the maestro told the presenter.

“I can’t just wait to touch the trophy and this is the right time to say thank you to everyone. It’s never too late to win a trophy,” a beaming Tendulkar said when another legend Sunil Gavaskar asked whether he would play opening match of Mumbai Indians at Wankhede next year.

Asked about how it felt playing at 40, he said, “Anil (Kumble) said that 40 is just a number. There were optional practise days but entire team turned up. Things don’t come easily but we were prepared to go through the grind.”

Other countries taking part in the tournament are Italy, Oman, Uganda, the USA and hosts Bermuda, according to a statement released by the International Cricket Council (ICC) here today.

The winner and the runner-up teams from the tournament will take part in the ICC world cup qualifying tournament to be held in New Zealand in 2014. Those selected from this tournament will be book a berth in the ICC World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand in 2015.

The Nepali national cricket team led by Paras Khadka is currently in India playing practice matches in the build up to the tournament.

The three cricketers from the People’s Republic of China, Fast bowler Zhang Peng, teenage off-spinner “William” Wang and wicketkeeper “Jason” Zhao, who spent the past two months learning the Aussie approach, said Beijing was already making its best efforts in improving the national cricket team.

Their dinkum Aussie mate Brian Freedman said their enthusiasm bowled everyone over, adding that China would one day field a competitive team.

“They’re preparing for a tournament in Malaysia so they are getting exposure. They play 50-over games and T20, but I’m sure they won’t play five-day games in my lifetime,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Freedman, as saying.

According to Zhang, who was 22 when he took up cricket after his university basketball coach suggested he consider becoming his nation’s answer to paceman Brett Lee, the Georges River club instilled invaluable lessons, the paper said.

“I have learned to control [the] ball better,” he said. “The cricket [was] much harder than China. The people at Georges River very friendly,” he said. (ANI)

New Delhi (AFP)- England jet into Mumbai on Monday under new captain Alastair Cook, striving to win their first Test series in India in 27 years against a home team desperate to make amends for last year’s 4-0 drubbing.

The four-Test series, starting in Ahmedabad on November 15, will be further spiced up by Kevin Pietersen’s return to the England fold after his exile and hints that Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar is on the brink of retirement.

The series gives the home side an opportunity to make amends for the humiliating 4-0 whitewash in England last year that saw them dethroned as the number one Test side — and their replacement by England.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team then suffered another 4-0 defeat in Australia, capping a miserable six-month period that took the shine off India’s 50-over World Cup triumph in 2011.

But with the series against England followed by four Tests against Australia in February-March, India, ranked fifth in the world, will look to take advantage of familiar conditions to haul themselves back up the rankings.

Dhoni has urged groundsmen to prepare wickets that suit spin bowling and selectors refused to pick a spinner for England’s three-day opener in Mumbai from Tuesday, denying the tourists early exposure to the turning ball.

“When we go to England, we get wickets that help the seamers and in Australia you get tracks with bounce,” said Dhoni. “In the subcontinent, spin is what matters and we should stick to that.”

England, who last won a Test series in India under David Gower in 1985 and lost their number one status to South Africa in August, will receive a boost from the return of the dangerous Pietersen.

Pietersen, who has hit more than 7,000 Test runs at a shade under 50, smashed a brilliant 144 in England’s last Test on Indian soil in 2008 and knows the conditions well as a player for Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League.

And the 32-year-old will be keen to impress after he was dropped in August for sending text messages to touring South Africa players that contained criticism of then skipper Andrew Strauss.

Numerous meetings with England team bosses and players eventually saw him added at the last minute to the Indian tour party and Cook said Pietersen was “contrite” over his actions and would be welcomed back into the squad.

India, who began their busy home season by winning both Tests against lowly New Zealand in August and September before being ousted in the second round of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, are facing a future without Tendulkar.

The plans of the 39-year-old superstar are in the spotlight after the admitted earlier this month that the clock was ticking on his run-filled 23-year career.

“I don’t think I have plenty of cricket left in me,” said Tendulkar, the highest run-scorer in Test and one-day cricket history — and the only batsman to notch 100 international centuries.

Tendulkar, who has scored a record 51 Test centuries, has now gone 25 innings without a hundred in the five-day format since making 146 against South Africa in Cape Town in January 2011.

He was bowled in all three innings against New Zealand with a top score of just 27, raising fears that age may finally be catching up with him.

England have the rare luxury of two three-day games and one four-day match to acclimatise to Indian conditions before the series starts in Ahmedabad.

Further Tests are scheduled for Mumbai, Kolkata and Nagpur.

The tourists, who also play two Twenty20 matches following the Tests, will go home for Christmas before returning in the New Year for a five-match one-day series.

New Zealand: Former paceman Shane Bond was appointed New Zealand’s bowling coach on Friday, ahead of a tough international season that includes Test series against South Africa, England and Sri Lanka.

Bond, 37, said he had aspired to the role since 2010, when a succession of injuries that blighted his once-promising career forced him out of the game with just 18 Test caps in nine years.

“This is a role I have worked towards since I stopped playing,” he said. “The experience of playing for New Zealand exceeded my expectations and I’m sure it will be no different as a coach.”

Bond will accompany the Black Caps to Sri Lanka later this month and be part of the coaching set-up when New Zealand tour South Africa in December, then host England in February.

“The Black Caps have some very important cricket coming up and we are delighted to have Shane on board to help develop and prepare our international bowling attack,” New Zealand Cricket director of cricket John Buchanan said.

“His knowledge of the modern game will be a valuable asset to the team.”

Sydney, Oct 19 (ANI): All rounder Shane Watson has said playing at the Champions League would not have a taken a toll on him, but he understands why Cricket Australia have sent him home early from the Twenty20 event.

Watson did not say what he would have done had the decision been his to make, but he accepts the ruling of CA’s team performance manager Pat Howard was in his best interests as far as next month’s Test series against South Africa is concerned.

“In regards to the summer it is [in my best interests], but not in regards to playing for the Sixers. Physically and mentally it wouldn’t have taken a toll at all,” Watson said after the Sydney Sixers booked a berth in the semi-finals.

“You do get brought up to play, that’s what you love doing, in the end you have to make the most of the time you do have to train and give yourself, especially with my history, the best chance physically of being ready as well.

“Having the week to freshen up, from that point of view, I should be raring to go. In the end, it’s disappointing to miss these games because it’s high-quality cricket that you’re playing and it is a lot of fun.”

Watson said there had been talks in the last six months between the Sixers and CA regarding his availability for the tournament.

Watson would not have arrived back in Australia until October 30, just days before lining up for New South Wales in a Shield game in Brisbane, if he played out the Champions League.

Instead, he will arrive back in Sydney on Saturday, allowing him to spend next week resting before he starts match practice in preparation for the first Test in Brisbane starting November 9. (ANI)