It was Nepal´s second consecutive victory in the ICC World Cricket League Division 4, having beaten Singapore in its first match on Monday.[break]
The victory over Tanzania is especially sweet as it eases the bitter memories of the Division 4 in Italy in 2010, in which Nepal could not meet the target of 118-run, and lost the league match by nine runs which prevented Nepal from qualifying to the Division 3. However, Nepal had defeated Tanzania by 10 wickets in the third place playoff during the same tournament.
At Bayuemas Oval, Kuala Lumpur, Tanzania elected to bat first but the decision proved to be fatal as its batsmen were clueless against both pace and spin attacks of Nepal. Tanzania posted just 82 runs after losing all wickets in 31.4 overs. Nepal chased the target easily in 19.4 overs losing only two wickets.
Nepal´s coach Pubudu Dassanayake said he was happy with his side´s performance but he insisted that Nepal still had a long way to go. "I am happy with the boys. They played well. But the mission is not yet over. We still have three more games to play in the group stage," Dassanayake said.
Nepali skipper Paras Khadka, who opted to bowl pace against the Africans, claimed four wickets to rattle Tanzania. His bowling figure was 9-3-24-4. It was Khadka´s best bowling figure so far at the senior level (national squad).
As Nepali medium pacer Amrit Bhattarai (6-1-19-0) contained runs flow from the very beginning, his senior partner Binod Das (7-3-15-2) claimed two wickets early. Shakti Gauchan (3-0-8-1) claimed a wicket in the middle while Basanta Regmi (6.4-2-14-3) wrapped the Tanzanian innings.
Issa Kikasi (33runs off 47 balls), Benoson Mwita (16 runs off 31 balls) and Khalil Rehemtulla (11 runs off 29 balls) were the major contributors for Tanzania.
In reply, Nepali opener Anil Mandal (9 runs off 13 balls) was caught and bowled by Rehmtulla in the first ball of the fifth over when Nepal was on 18 runs.
However, opener Subash Khakurel (20 runs off 56 balls) put up a 49-run partnership with Gyanendra Malla for the second wicket. Khakurel was run out in the 18th over.
Malla remained unbeaten on 28 runs off 39 balls. Skipper Khadka (unbeaten 15 runs off 10 balls) sealed the victory in style hitting a towering six.
Khadka was adjudged man-of-the-match for his all-round performance.
Nepal has four points from two matches and is in the top position of the points table with a net run rate of +2.452.
Nepal will take on host Malaysia on Thursday in its third match.
With the completion of second match, Nepal is on the top of points table. Despite achieving second win Denmark is in the second position of points table on the basis of run rate. Singapore and United States of America are in third and fourth places respectively with two points apiece. Tanzania and host Malaysia has lost both matches played so far. Top two teams of the tournament will qualify to the Division 3 and bottom two will be relegated to Division 5.
Meanwhile, Singapore defeated Malaysia by 112 runs on the basis of D method after the match was interrupted by downpour. Similarly, Denmark also emerged victorious against America by 56 runs after it faced similar fate.
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