Kathmandu/Cricnepal: Bhuwan Karki completed his five wicket haul and Pradeep Airee falled two runs short of century as Nepal ended its loosing streak in the ICC U-19 World Cup Cricket Tournament on Tuesday. Nepal defeated Namibia by 39 runs in the thirteenth place play off semi final match pkayedat the Peter Burge Oval, Birisane, Australia.
Winning the toss, Nepal elected to bat first. Pradeep Aire, who failed in all of the four previous matches slammed 98 runs with remaining unbeaten as Nepal posted a total of 219 runs losing seven wickets off 50 overs. as he slammed 98 runs, remaining unbeaten. In reply, Nepal restricted Namibia to 180 runs in 46.3 overs.
Airee hit three fours and equal sixes facig 76 balls. The run scored by Airee is the highest run for any nepali batsman in U-19 World Cup.
Openers failed again as Faijular Rehman went to pavilion for five runs while Sagar Pun scored seven and Naresh Budayer added only a single. Skipper Prithu Baskota was run out for 18 runs. Rajesh Pulami scored 24 runs and Hasim Ansari collected 18 runs.
Christopher Coombe grabbed three wickets, Shalako Groenewald picked up two while Andre Engelbrecht and Luke Bolton claimed a wicket each for Namibia.
On defending the score, Man-of-the-match Bhuwan Karki claimed five wickets in his 7.3 overs spell conceding 21 runs. Karki’s figure is the best figure from nepali bowler in the U-19 World Cup. Krishna Karki, Ramnaresh Giri, Prithu Baskota and Sagar Pun claimed a wicket each.
Stephen Baard top scored with 56 runs for Namibia while Zhivago Groenewald scored 54 runs. Michiel du Preez added another 21 runs.
Nepal earlier registered loss to Australia by 212 runs, Ireland by 14 runs, England by 126 runs in group stage and to Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in 9th place play off quarter final match. Nepal will play Papua New Guinea on Thursday in a 13th place play off match.
