The strong contender of the title Nepal got off the
mark with a convincing 78 run victory over Kuwait in the ACC U-16 Elite Cup at
the Bayuemas Oval Ground in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. Nepal started their journey
to the title riding on some excellent performance with bat and bowl from their
players.

It was Nepal’s second successive
triumph over the familiar opponent Kuwait in the ACC U-16 Elite Cup history.
Earlier, Nepal had hammered Kuwait by 101 runs in their first encounter in the
first edition of the tournament held in Kathmandu in 2010, where Nepal had
secured the runner-up place after losing to Singapore. Now, Nepal will vie
against Bahrain on Sunday in its second match of the tournament to be played at
the Kinrara Oval Ground.
Winning the toss, Nepal led by Dipendra Chand opted to bat first and posted a
standard 179 runs losing all wickets playing 32.4 overs. Nepal restricted
Kuwait on 101 runs in 32.5 overs, as Kuwait batsmen felled prey to Nepalese
bowlers in regular succession.
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Shashi Bhushan Mishra celebrating with captain Dipendra Chand. |
Nepal lost its opener skipper
Dipendra Chand in the 2nd over that dented Nepal’s start. Chand
managed 5 runs on the board before Saideep Yarapureddy sent him back. The
dependable opener Nurdhoj Sen lived up to the expectation and scored 47 runs
off 58 balls with six boundaries. One down batsman Shashi Bhushan Mishra was
out shortly in the sixth over after adding 10 runs off 16 balls. Left hander
Aadil Khan could not do much to the side as he was caught and bowled by Meezan
Ali when team was suffering on 55-3 in the 10th over. Soon, Aashif
Sheikh was out scoring 2 runs. Khushal
Bhurtel contributed a handy 34 runs off 54 balls when Nepalese batsmen were
tumbling on the other side. Sen and Bhurtel shared a 27 runs partnership for
the fifth wicket that guided Nepal to an average total. Bhurtel struck for
boundaries during his long stay at the pitch.
Mukunda Yadav and Jagdish Chand added 8 and 9
runs to the total. Both Yadav and Chand were sent back by Morshed Sarwar.
Kalicharan Yadav scored a brisk 12 runs off 11 balls including two boundaries
and also scripted a last wicket 20 runs partnership with Akash Bista who hit
run a ball 11runs with a boundary. Kuwait bowlers looked out of touch as they
spent 32 runs as extras including 28 wides.
Morshed Sarwar claimed four wickets
for Kuwait yet could not rescue his
side from the defeat. Saideep Yarapureddy
took two wickets. Fazlur Rehman, Meezan Ali and Abdul Wahab bagged one wicket
each for Kuwait.
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Jagdish Chand in action |
In reply, chasing the formidable 180-run target, Nepalese bowlers bowled out
Kuwait for 101 runs in 32.5 overs. Kuwait’s batsmen surrendered to Nepalese
sharp bowlers and felled short in achieving the target. The man of the match
Kalicharan Yadav had an unforgettable day with the bowl. Medium pacer Yadav
snatched four wickets after giving away 12 runs in his eight overs spell. Yadav
was well-supported by his other teammates as well. Leg-spinner Shashi Bhushan
Mishra also had two Kuwaiti scalps. Mishra dispatched both dangerous looking Saideep Yarapureddy and skipper Faizan Sadiq. Yarapureddy scored 38 runs of 64 deliveries while Sadiq struck
unhurried 27 off 59 balls. Jagdish Chand grabbed two wickets with one earlier
breakthrough in the 3rd over on the course of limiting Kuwait. Akash
Bista claimed a wicket for the winning side. Other Kuwaiti batsmen could not
put in any notable display in the match, where Nepalese boys completely stole
the show.
Nepali coach Manjural Alam Khan was
pleased with today’s success. Coach Alam said that the huge win over Kuwait
will help boys to gain some confidence in upcoming matches. "We wanted to win today’s
match at any cost because starting with success is always a big thing when you
have many matches to play,” added coach talking on Phone with TNP. He also
hailed his players like Shashi Bhushan and Kali Charan for their excellence in
the field. “I have lots of expectation on Kali Charan and Shashi Bhushan who
can be a strong weapon against any sides” said. Commenting on Nepal’s fumbling
batting coach said, “We had some troubles in batting but thanks to Nurdhoj and
Kushal that we managed a defendable total.”
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