However, Nepali middle order batted well as in the previous matches. Paras Khadka and Sharad Vesawkar were at their best during their knocks. [break]
Sharad scored the first century of the tournament to turn the Nepali innings into a high scoring one.
Fiji are a good side but they are a team which mostly plays 20 overs cricket. They usually play on mat; and turf is foreign to them. They also live in altitude much lower than Nepal. Probably these things affected their performance.
This is Nepal´s first win over Fiji. Earlier, Fiji had defeated Nepal three times including in a practice match of the ICC Trophy 2001 in Canada. (Fiji had defeated Nepal by 123 runs in the 1996 ACC Trophy, by 7 wickets in the 2001 ICC Trophy practice match and by three runs in the semifinal of the World Cup Qualifying Series II in Malaysia in 2005).
Fiji´s bowlers lacked disciplined bowling on Wednesday and they were not pitching the ball in the right areas. Though they took three wickets early in the match, they could not capitalize the situation. There were loose deliveries time and again and their fielding also needs improvement.
While talking about bowling, we can´t blame seamers. Nepali wickets and condition mostly don´t suit seamers. As usual, spinners are doing well and they did the same against Fiji.
In fact, the tournament is getting interesting and it is good to see good cricket as an organizer.
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(As told to Navin Khatiwada)
Pawan Agrawal played for Nepal from 1996-2001 and captained the side in the 2000 ACC Trophy. Overall, he played 14 matches for Nepal scoring 226 runs and taking eight wickets. He is the tournament host manager for the WCL Div 5.
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