Nepal have been ruled out from the ongoing U25 SAARC T20 Cup after losing its last league match against Pakistan by 73 runs in Maldives on Saturday.
Winning the toss, Nepal chose to bowl first and restricted Pakistan to the defensible score of 176 runs with 9 wickets in 20 overs. The 8th wicket partnership between Mohammad Rameez and Ali Khan turned their first innings. Eventually, Pakistan lost early wickets and were struggling at 55/7 in 12th over. Mohammad Rameez played a good innings of 48 runs from 22 balls whereas Man of the Match Ali Khan added 62 off 41 balls.
Shining back in the form Nepali bowler Krishna Karki grabbed four wickets, while skipper Paras Khadka once again proved with his bowl and grabbed 3 wickets.
In reply, Nepal couldn’t achieve the target. Playing all the 20 overs, Nepal could just manage 99 runs loosing 9 wickets. Beside the opening partnership, none of the other played well.
Paras Khadka stood as the valuable player for Nepal through out the tournament with both bat and ball. While Krishna was the pick of the Nepali bowlers with figures of 4-11 off four overs.
“In bowling it was our great achievement to have reduced them to 55-7,” Paras said. “But the two batsmen who added century partnership did not give us any chance. They batted really well,” he said. “The 177-run target was not a tough one but failed with the bat,” he said.
Pakistan now will play against Maldives while Sri Lanka will play against Afghanistan in the semi finals.
