After losing 5 matches in a row Nepal finally tasted victory in the ongoing ICC World Cup Qualifers, defeating Uganda a.k.a Cricket Cranes by 160 runs, in the 9th place play off of the tournament played at Bay Oval 2, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. With the win Nepal finish ninth in the 10 team tournament.
Prithu Baskota starred with the bat in Nepal’s innings as eh scored 59 of just 51 balls before getting retired hurt. Riding on Prithu’s batting Nepal posted 240/9 in 49.4 overs Prithu’s innings included 9 fours and 1 six. He added 86* runs for the fifth wicket with Vesawkar(41), the only substantial partnership in the whole match.(The second highest of the match-33 between Nepali openers)
Earlier winning the toss and batting first openers Pradeep Airee(23) and Mahesh Chhetri(19) gave Nepal a steady start. After Airee was out Malla scored a settled looking 8 of 7 balls before handing a easy catch at covers to Davis Karashani. Paras Khadka(30 of 56 balls) played relatively slow innings adding 24 with Mahesh and 29 with Vesawkar for 3rd and 4th wicket.
After Paras’ departure Vesawkar and Prithu played sensibly together in the middle overs.In the 5th ball of the 42nd over Prithu collieded with Sharad Vesawkar in middle of a run and injured his ankle, unable to bat he was retired hurt for Nepal’s only second half century of the tournament!
Binod Bhandari 21 ball 35 runs which included as many as three sixes propelled Nepal’s innings to 240.
Waiswa from Uganda finished the innings with 3 scalps returing with figures of 10-0-55-3. Unsuccessfyl early in the innings Waiswa claimed wickets of Sharad Vesawkar, Binod Bhandari and Basanta Regmi in the late overs. Uganda captain Davis Karashini picked up two wickets and gave just 23 from his 10 overs.
Uganda crumbled to 80/10 in 36.3 overs.
Cricket Cranes’s openers Brian Masaba(13 of 25 balls ) and Abram Mutyagaba(16 of 49 balls) provided a steady start of 20 runs. However After Masaba’s dismissal in the 7th over Nepal tighened the grip. He was out caught behind of Sompal Kami. Uganda then never recovered and the innings was all downhill.
Sompal go the second wicket in the 9th over getting geting Hamza Saleh for just 3. After the openers only Richard Okia(19) provided some restistance against Nepali bowling- other fell before even getting to the double digits.
Sagar Pun pickep up 3 wickets and returned with figures of 8.3-0-18-3. Shakti Gauchan who opened the bowling with Sompal got success late in the batting bagging number 9 and number 10’s wicket. Nepal’s ace spinner Basant Regmi got one scalp.
