KATHMANDU, Aug 13: Nepal had a miserable start in the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup as the defending champion Australia crushed Nepal by 212 runs on Monday at the Townsville in Australia.
It was the bad day for Nepal in its opening campaign as they failed to perform well with both bat and ball. [break]
Winning the toss, Nepal invited home team to bat first which scored 294/7 in the 50 over match. Chasing the mammoth target, Nepal managed to score 82 runs in 23.5 overs losing all the wickets.
Man-of-the-match Cameron Bancroft scored 125 runs off 139 balls and shared a 160-runs partnership for second wicket with Kurtis Patterson. Bancroft hammered seven boundaries and two huge sixes while Patterson scored 86 runs off 87 balls with five fences and two sixes.
While other bowlers failed to shine, Pradeep Airee and Rahul BK claimed two wickets each. Airee grabbed two wickets in his five overs spell conceding 39 runs while BK bowled nine overs and picked two wickets conceding 50 runs. Avinash Karna, Krishna Karki and Bhuwan Karki also pocketed a wicket each.
Nepal never looked comfortable in the run chase as it lost three wickets with only 11 runs on board. Harry Conway claimed hat-trick as Nepal continued to lose wickets in regular intervals. Conway´s first victim was Airee (1) in the fifth ball of fourth over. Conway removed Naresh Budhayir (0) in the very next ball and his third victim was skipper Prithu Baskota in the first ball of sixth over.
Opener Subash Kakurel and Sagar Pun shared a 10-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Khakurel was sent back to the pavilion on 12 runs off 29 balls. Middle order batsmen Sagar Pun and Rajesh Pulami Magar tried to rescue Nepal as they took the score to 63 runs. Pun and Magar shared a 42-run partnership for fifth wicket.
Pun was the top scorer for Nepal with 22 runs off 39 balls. Magar was the second highest scorer for Nepal as he scored 21 runs off 29 balls. Hasim Ansari (12) was other Nepali batsman to cross double figure margin while four other Nepali batsmen could not open their account.
Turner was the most successful bowler for Australia as he picked four wickets in his 5.5 overs spell conceding 28 runs. Conway grabbed three wickets while Gregory took two wickets and Sandhu took one wicket.
Nepal will play Ireland on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies win
In other matches of the day, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies registered victories. Sri Lanka crushed Namibia by 195 runs. Batting first, Sri Lanka scored 298 runs for the loss of nine wickets. Namibila managed to score 105 runs in 35 overs losing all the wickets.
In another match, Pakistan defeated Scotland by nine wickets. Electing to take bat first, Scotland scored 200 runs in 49.5 overs losing all the wickets. Pakistan successfully chased the target in 36.2 overs losing only one wicket.
West Indies thrashed Papua New Guinea by nine wickets. Batting first, PNG managed to score 116 in 41 overs. West Indies achieved the target losing one wicket in just 11.4 overs.