Cricnepal/Kathmandu – Six wickets from Left-arm Spinner Rahul Viswakarma helped Nepal to thrash Papua New Guinea by 6 wickets in the 13th place play-off match of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup played at Peter Burge Oval in Brisbane today (23).
PNG won the toss and elected to bat first but they were bowled out for 89 runs in 33.1 overs with Sese Bau top scoring 21.
It was all Rahul VK who tumbled the batting attack of PNG in total disarray as he bowled an economical spell of 6.1 overs to finish up with impressive figures of 6 wickets for 4 runs.
Similarly, Skipper Baskota took two wickets giving away 14 runs in his 5 overs.
Nepal reached their victory target in 18.5 overs after losing only four wickets. Opener Subash Khakurel went for duck while Naresh Budhayair 27 runs (37 balls), Sagar Pun 20 runs(28 balls) & Rajesh Pulami Magar 18 runs (13 balls) were the top scorers for Nepal during the chase.
Rahul Vishvakarma was adjudged the man-of-the-match.
Rahul set the series of the record. Vishwakarma stands second in the wickets tally in the ongoing tournament with 13 wickets. England´s Reece Topley is on the top with 16 wickets in the tournament.
Rahul’s figure is the best bowling figure in the tournament while it is also the third best bowling figure in the entire history of U-19 World Cup.
Rahul also set the best economic rate in the entire history of the U-19 World Cup with the rate of 0.47. Earlier, Virender Sehwag(1998) had the best economic bowling figure in the U-19 World Cup history. Sehwag had the figure of 8-5-4-3 with the economy rate of 0.50. It is also the second best economy rate among the official youth One-Day matches. Earlier, Indian Gautam Dutta had a record figure of 9-7-3-2 against England in 1993 with the economy rate of 0.33.
It is also the best bowling figure of Nepali bowler in the U-19 World Cup history. Bhuwan Karki earlier took five wickets for 21 runs against Namibia on Tuesday.
Vishwakarma, who was playing the second consecutive U-19 World Cup, took his wicket tally to 23, equal to Paras Khadka. Khadka playing three U-19 World Cups had claimed 23 wickets from 17 matches.
Scorecard Summary:
ICC U19 World Cup 2012 – 13th Playoff Match:
Toss: PNG
PNG 89 all out (33.1) (Sese Bau 21, Rahul Vishvakarma 6/4, Prithu Baskota 2/14)
Nepal 90 for 4 wickets (18.5) (Sagar Pun 20, Naresh Buayair 27, Pulami Magar 18n.o., Pradeep Airee 12n.o., Albert Geita 3/25)
