Record-breaking Lamichhane inspires Nepal’s top finish

KATHMANDU, Oct 13: The leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane took his total tally to 24 wickets after securing a four-wicket-haul during the final group match in ICC World T20 Asia Region Qualifier ‘B’ against Singapore on Friday. It is a record for a Nepali bowler in any international tournament in any format, 20-over, 50-over or multi-day cricket.

Nepal finished on top of the table with 11 points winning five matches and final group match against Singapore finishing in a no-result after a rain interruption. The last match between the two sides was a virtual final with the same points but Nepal tipped Singapore to the top of the table courtesy of a superior net run rate. 

In a dominant display of bowling by Nepal bowlers lead by Lamichhane, Singapore was all out for 81 runs in the 18th over before rain arrived in the first over of the chase as no further play was possible. Nepal lost the wicket of Anil Kumar Sah in the third delivery of the chase for a duck, wicket claimed by Shoaib Razzak. Nepal was on a run for the loss a wicket as the rain arrived to abandon the rest of the day.

Earlier, Nepal won the toss and elected to bowl first as the hovering dark clouds threatened to interrupt since the morning. Lamichhane was helped by couple of brace by fast bowlers Karan KC and Sompal Kami. Left-arm spinners Lalit Rajbanshi and Basant Regmi chipped in with a wicket each. 

The highest run scorer of the tournament, Surendran Chandramohan top scored for Singapore with 25 runs opening the innings. He smashed three boundaries during his 32-ball stay. Manpreet Singh and Sidhant were the other double-digit scorers contributing 10 runs each to the total as Nepal bowlers ran rampant.

Nepal, along with Singapore, had already secured its berths for the ICC World T20 Asia Qualifier finals slated for the end of 2018. Malaysia will be the third team joining Kuwait, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, who won the Asia Region Qualifier ‘A’ in the Asian finals. The top two teams from the final Asian qualifier will join global qualifier league next year.

Teams from different regions of the world and bottom-ranked test teams will play in the global qualifier to secure their place in ICC World T20, Australia, 2020.

BREIF SCORES
ICC World Twenty20 Asia Region Qualifier B, 21st Match, in Kuala Lumpur
Singapore 81
Chandramohan 25, Lamichhane 16/4, Karan 18/2
Nepal 1/1 (0.3/20 ov, target 82)
Razzak 1/1