Kathmandu- An unbeaten 76 from Skipper Jack Vare guided Papua New Guinea (PNG) to another three wickets victory over Nepal in the ICC WCL Championship in the second match of second round at Sheikh Zyed Stadium on Wednesday.
Nepal set 224 for 8 in 50 overs after they won the toss and opted to bat first. PNG then, recovering from a position of 141 for 7, won the match by three wickets with two balls remaining, after Skipper Jack Vare and No.9 batsman John Reva put on unbeaten 84 runs partnership.
Vare played an catpain’s innings remaining not out on 76 off 90 balls with three four while Reva too scored 31 not out from 45 balls.
Earlier, Sompal’s three wickets in the first 10 over had PNG rattling at 51 for 3. Sompal took the wickets of Tony Ura (24 runs), Saika (duck out) and last match hero Assad (18 runs). Basnat Regmi then, taking the wickets of Sese Bau and Muhuru Dai helped sink PNG further to 101 for 5 in the 21st over. Then in PNG’s captain shared 15 runs for the sixth wicket with Amini and 29 runs with Hiri for the seventh wicket.
Its was then, Vare and Reva frustrated Nepal bowlers rotating the strike and picking up boundaries at right time and won it for PNG by three wickets.Vare blasted Nepal’s skipper Paras Khadka for a four and a single in the last over.
Paras Khadka’s 58 runs off 81 deliveries and Sharad Veswakar’s 42 runs off 45 balls that helped Nepal 224 for 8 in the first innings. Nepal had a disasterous start losing openers Anil Mandal and Subash Khakrel for a duck. Sagar Pun and Gyanendra Malla consolidated Nepal’s innings with 65 runs partnership for the third wicket before Malla got out with 36 runs to his name. Sagar Pun’s tortoise inning’s of 47 runs from 92 balls came to an end after having put 51 runs for the fourth wicket.
Paras the became the first victim of Assad Vala, leaving Nepal 178/5. Sharad helped Nepal past the 200 mark and Mehabob Alam’s little cameo of 15 runs from just 7 balls, including the only six of Nepal’s innings in the last over guided Nepal to 224 for 8. Vala and Vannua picked three wickets each for PNG.
After losing this match, Nepal stand on the bottom of the ICC WCL Championship table with no points from four match..
