Kathmandu – Nepali Women’s U-19 Team defeated China by 7 wickets in first match of ongoing ACC U-19 Women’s Championship in Kuwait.
Nepal, winning the toss elected to field first. 3 wickets from Kavita Gautam and 2 wickets each from Santoshi Chaudhary, Sonu Khadka and Sangeeta Gauchan helped Nepal restrict China to a total of 61 runs in 23.1 overs. Skipper Rubina Chhetri grabbed a single wicket.
Nepal had a brilliant start as Chin Huiya was caught by Kavita Gautam in the first ball off the first over by Sonu Khadka. Nepal got another break through in 4th over as a run out.
Rubina Chhetri sent Zhou Caiyan for a lbw in 5th over as China were struggling with 5-3. Zhu Liya and Ying Lili, then accelerated the innings for China. They had a partnership of 23 runs till 13th over. Nepal again got struck as both of the players went out scoring 14 and 13 runs respectively.
Sangeeta Gauchan’s two wickets off two balls was the turning point for Nepal which was immediately followed by another run out off the next over of Kavita Gautam.
In reply, Nepal chased the target in just 15.2 overs with having 7 wickets in hand. Nepal had a good progress until opener Shilu Rijal was bowled by Ying Lili in fifth over. Anuradha Chaudhary(12) joined Shilu at the team score of 16 in sixth over.
It was Indu Verma who made the chase easy with beautiful boundaries. Indu Varma was bowled by off-spinner Ding Xiuxiu for 16 and Nepal was near to victory with 52 for 3 in the 12th over which they got in 16th over with Kavita Gautam scoring unbeaten 25 runs.
Nepal will face Malaysia on Saturday at the same venue.
