Nepal U19 fell short of 15 runs in the most exciting 7th place play-off match against Namibia U19, that allowed Namibia to qualify for the 2018 ICC U19 World Cup at Fatullah on thursday(Feb. 11).
Namibia U19 posted 225/9 after winning the toss in 45 over match despite bad weather conditions in Fatullah. Namibia were restricted to 113/5 in 32.5 overs but a match winning partnership of 99 runs between F Rautenbach and Michael van Lingen in 63 balls took them game away from Nepal. F Rautenbach hit 39 off 30 balls while Left-handed Lingen’s 58 from 36 balls with four boundaries and a six made the difference in Namibian’s total at the end of inning.
Earlier, Louwrens’s calmness inning produced a half century (59) off 96 balls with 5 boundaries a six. Leg spinner Sandeep Lamichhane and Sushil Kanel grabbed three & two wickets respectively. Aarif Sheikh went wicketless in his 8 overs whilst his counterpart Sunil Dhamala was accurate with line and length to produce three maidens in his 9 overs and took one wicket.
Nepal started the chase of 226 with losing an early wicket of Shankar Rana. He was playing the first match of this tournament. Sunil Dhamala and Yogendra Singh Karki paced the inning together to put Nepal on top with 97 runs partnership for the second wicket. Dhamala smashed 9 boundaries in his inning of 59 runs before getting out off van Lingen’s bowling. Skipper Raju Rijal went cheaply for a single run. Aarif Sheikh (30) & Dipendra Singh Airee (31) both got the start but fell to convert to a match winning inning.
As soon as the duo were dismissed, it was a tough ask for the lower order batsmen. Nepal needed 51 runs to win from 36 balls and no batsmen could hit boundaries and sixes. Prem Tamang tried to play heroic inning but was losing partnership at the other end. He smashed 32 off 33 balls with 4 boundaries and a six but that couldn’t help Nepal to achieve 226 in 45.0 overs.
It was Michael Van Lingen’s spell of 6.2-1-24-4 to restrict Nepal for 210 in 44.2 overs. Coetzee also bowled superbly and grabbed three wickets. Van Lingen’s all-round performance with both bat (58) and ball (4 wickets) earned him Man of the Match.
