Hongkong and Afghanistan have secured a win today against Oman and Nepal in the semifinal of ongoing ACC Twenty20 Cup 2011 being held on Kathmandu.
Hongkong defeated Oman by 3 wickets while Afghanistan hammered Nepal by 9 wickets to go through the final. Both matches were played at Tribhuvan University ground.
Nepal won the toss and decided to bat first. Match was reduced to 16 overs aside due to delay in clearing up the dew on the ground. As the match started, Openers failed cheaply as they were simply beaten for pace from Afghans.
Once Sun brightened up on the ground, host were already tottering on 19/4 at 6.1 overs. Except Skipper Paras Khadka(30 runs off 29 balls, 1 six) and Basanta Regmi (10 runs off 13 balls), none of the other batters stayed at the crease for long. At the half way stage, Nepal was deep in trouble with 6 down for 39 runs.
The hero of the previous match against Saudi, Mehboob Alam along with Binod Das couldn’t trouble the scorers. The Afghan pacers simply rattled Nepali Batsmen and restricted them to lowest total of 69 for 9 in 16 overs.
Pacer Dawlat Zadran took 4 wickets in his 3 overs while Zamir Khan took two wickets.
With 15,000 spectators cheering & expecting boundaries and sixes for the host team, they failed and disappointed the audience badly. It was a worst-like scorecard to be read with just 1 four and 2 sixes in their total of 69 runs.
With a required runrate of 4.37 runs per over, Afghanistan launched their chase with openers Karim Sadiq & Shabir Noori. Before being stumped off Basanta Regmi, Karim had smashed 7 boundaries and scored 26 balls 32 runs. Shabir Noori (27 runs off 22 balls, 1 four and 3 sixes)together with Mohammad Shahzad†(6 runs off 8 balls ) took Afghanistan to the final of ACC Twenty20 Cup. It took just 9.2 overs to achieve the target.
Meanwhile, Hongkong advanced to the final after beating Oman by 3 wickets. Oman won the toss and elected to bat first. They managed to score 142 runs losing 6 wickets. The first over gave 22 runs in their inning but later Hongkong restricted them. Irfan Ahmed took 3 wickets.
During the chase, Man of the Match, Munir Dar anchored the innings and took Hong Kong to the final. He smashed 46 balls 76 runs with 8 fours and 3 sixes. Earlier, Opener Irfan Ahmed scored 23 runs off 10 balls. They lost 7 wickets to chase down the target in 19.3 overs.
Afghanistan now will take Hongkong on Final of ACC Twenty20 Cup on Sunday while, Nepal will play against Roy Dias’s Oman for 3rd Place Play off.
Afghanistan, Hongkong, Nepal and Oman have already been qualified for 2012 World Twenty20 Qualifiers at UAE.
Nis Tiwari
Cricnepal.com
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