Nepal crashed out from the race for ACC Women’s Premier Trophy after losing today’s crucial fixture to China by 69 runs. This is Nepal’s second loss in four matches-China and Thailand with four wins each have ensured their place in the final of the tournament. Nepal will now take on Hong Kong tomorrow and the winner will take the third place.
Winning the toss and batting first China posted 159/8 in 40 overs, and then restricted Nepal to 90 runs. The loss also means that China and Nepal are now level on head to head results with 2 wins each. China had previously defeated Nepal in last year’s ACC Women’s Asia Cup T20.
Zhang Mei once again top scored for China with 31 from 57 balls. Liu Xiaonan(26) was the only other batter for China with 20 plus scores but small contributions from Sun Huan(15), skipper Huang Zhou(15), Zhou Miao(15), and Wang Meng(15) took China to a defendable total. Saraswati Chudhary and Karuna Bhandari picked up two wickets each for Nepal.
Needing achievable four runs an over Nepal opened with experienced Neera Rajopadhyay and Sita Magar. Although Sita(3) was out early Neera did provide Nepal with a decent start as Nepal scored steadily-pushing 3 runs an over till the 10 over. Neera and Sarita Magar added 25 runs for the second wicket-the highest for Nepal in the match. Till then the target seemed well within Nepal’s reach
But the game started to slip from Nepal’s hands after losing both Neera(16) and Sarita(7) at scores of 31 runs. Karuna Bhandari and Mamata Thapa then tried to rebuild Nepal’s innings adding 24 runs for the 4th wicket –but once Nepal lost Mamta at 55 runs – Nepal’s inning fell like house of cards-Nepal lost the last 6 wickets for just 27 runs. Karuna(15) and Mamata(11) were the only other players after Neera with double digit scores for Nepal.
Han Lili this tournament leading wicket taker took her wicket s tally to 11 after bagging 3 wickets against Nepal today. Zhou Haijie picked 2 wicket with her off spinners.
