Kathmandu – Nepal defeated Denmark in their first outing of ICC T20 Qualifiers by 5 wickets with nearly 7 overs to spare. Losing two wickets without a run on the board it took a belligerent innings from Paras Khadka to secure a win chasing.
Paras Khadka scored 48 of 33 balls as Nepal just chased the 80 runs target.
Paras scored as many as 5 sixes in his match winning knock and added 67 runs for the third wicket with Subash Khakurel.
Chasing a small total in Twenty20 after the usual good show by the bowlers, Nepali batsmen seemed to have lost the track early on. Pradeep Airee was out to off spinner Basir Shah in the first over without troubling the scoreboard. Aftab Ahmed got Gyanendra Malla for naught in his very first ball.
Skipper and Khakurel then added 67 runs for the third wicket. Runs were hard to come by early on and Nepal had just 2 runs on board in 3 overs. Subash then broke free as he smacked Aftab Ahmed for two boundaries in the fourth over. Paras got a six in the next over and eased the chase for Nepal.
Nepal reached 50 in the 9th over . Paras got 2 sixes and four off Hamid Shah as the 9th over fetched 18 runs.
Nepal then lost 3 wickets in span of less 5 balls.Paras was the first of the three, out in the 11th over to Yasir Iqbal. Bhandari was the third Nepali batsman out on duck today-out to Mahmood just a run later. Mahmood was on hattrick as he dismissed Subash Khakurel the very next balls. Khakurel made a slow 17 off 28 balls.
With just 12 more to win in more than 8 overs, Sharad(5) and Pun(4) guided the team home.
Earlier losing the toss and put into field Nepal had a good day on the field. Nepal opened with Amrit and Jitendra, first time in nearly a year Nepal played with two front line seamers.
Jitendra Mukhiya who was making his debut for Nepal got rid of Fredick Klokker for just one run. Aftab Ahmed and Yasir Iqbal then added 23 runs for second wicket, the highest of Denmark innings. Malla’s brilliance in the field got Nepal the second wicket as Aftab Ahmed was run out for 7 in the sixth over.
Jitendra got the third break for Nepal dismissing Kamran Mahmood for a duck.
With Klokker, Ahmed and Mahmood gone Denmark did not have much to offer to Nepali spinners.
Spinners once again starred with the ball for Nepal- Sagar Pun, Shakti Gaucha and Basanta Regmi gave away just 33 runs in 9.4 overs they bowled together taking 6 wickets. Paras introduced spin with Basanta and he picked up wickets in with his first ball itself getting rid of set Yasir Iqbal for 17. He ended the match with 2 wickets.
Micheal Pedresen and Hamid Shah added 23 runs for the sixth wicket. Sagar Pun broke this partnership as he struck in first over getting rid of set looking Hamid Shah for 18. Micheal Pedeersen also fell to Sagar for 15 of 17 balls.
Shakti Gauchan who had taken a hattrick the last time these teams met took a wicket. Paras picked up a wicket as well with his medium pace giving just 16 runs in his four overs.
Some of the stronger like Netherland and Afghanistan would not allow Nepal to recover as well as they did today. Nepal need to work on their batting if they wish to persue their world cup dreams.
