Nepal 265/8 in 50 overs lose to Kenya 269/9 in 49.5 overs
In what turned out to be a revenge plot for Kenya, Thomas Odoyo clobbered 18 year old seamer Sompal Kami for 19 runs in the last over as Kenya defeated Nepal in the second practice match of ICC CWCQ. Needing 15 from the last over, with just one wicket in hand Odoyo scored 3 fours and a six in the first five balls to give Kenya the victory. Nepal has defeated Kenya in a high scoring thriller in the ICC T20 Qualifer where Sharad Vesawkar took Aga for 20 runs in 4 balls. Nepal then needed 17 runs to win.
Earlier batting first Nepal posted 265/8 in the 50 overs. Anil Mandal top scored for Nepal with 62 runs. Having reached 100 in just 22 overs Nepal once looked like reaching 300, but wickets in the middle dragged things back for Nepal. Gyanendra Malla(14 from 26), Sharad Vesawkar(23 from 41) and Prithu Baskota(21 from 32) nugged the balls in the middle overs and consolidated.
Standing on the platform laid by trio- Vesawkar, Malla and Prithu- Binod Bhandari and Pradeed Airee clobbered for run in the middle overs. Bhandari made 48 from 39 balls while Pradeep Airee made 42 from 38. Basanta Regmi’s late blitz of 23 from 17 balls took Nepal to 265/8 in 50 overs.
Kenya made very slow start with the chase adding just 30 runs in the first 10 overs. In fact they were slow all the way till the 40th over and needed to score at nearly 10 runs an over in the final 10. Thomas Odoyo, Steve Tikolo and Maurice Ouma tore apart Nepali bowling in those 10 overs and got Kenya home.
Maurice Ouma top scored for Kenya with 73 runs, But Odoyo who made 66 from 44 balls was the real villain for Nepal. Nepali seamers were taken for plenty in the match. Sompal Thapa gave 86 runs without a wicket in his 9.5 overs while Jitendra Mukhiya was taken for 67 runs from his 10.
On the contrary the spinners were exceptional. They did not just limit the run scoring but also took wickets whenever kenyan batsman looked to open up. Shakti was particularly impressive picking up four wickets in his 10 overs. He gave away just 28 runs. Sagar Pun who bagged 3 wickets gave just 39 runs from his 10. Basanta Regmi ended the match on slight expensive side with 10-0-47-1.
Nepal had lost its previous practice match to Namibia yesterday. With Paras injured and Subash Khakurel ill Nepal played this match without their service. To make things more difficult Gyanendra Malla captaining the side used only 5 bowlers. Avinash Karn did not bowl a single ball in the match.
