Nepal will compete for the 13th place playoff against Papua New Guinea on Thursday which defeated Zimbabwe by 12 runs in other match of the day. Nepal had defeated Papua New Guinea by eight wickets during a practice match prior to the World Cup. [break]
On Tuesday´s match, Nepal elected to bat first after winning the toss. Vice captain Pradeep Aire starred for Nepal as he slammed 98 runs, remaining unbeaten Nepal´s total of 299 for 7 in the 50 over match. In reply, Nepal restricted Namibia to 180 runs in 46.3 overs.
With his 98 runs, Aire also scored highest individual run for Nepal in the U-19 World Cup. Aire smashed three boundaries and as many sixes facing 76 balls after the top order batsmen once again failed to deliver for Nepal. Aire scored 23 runs pairing with Krishna Karki in the last two overs. Nepal garnered 16 runs in the last overs. Aire failed to reach century after he scored a single in the fifth delivery of last ball.
The victory was the fourth in row for Nepal against Namibia in U-19 level. Earlier, Nepal had defeated Namibia in 2002 and 2008 World Cup by 10 and four runs respectively. Similarly, Nepal had also defeated Namibia in the U-19 World Cup Qualifiers held last year in Ireland by eight wickets.
Opener Faijular Rehman was sent back to pavilion for five runs whil Sagar Pun scored seven and Naresh Budayer was out for one run. Nepal was struggling on 66 runs with the loss of four wickets after skipper Prithu Baskota was run out for 18 runs. Rajesh Pulami scored 24 runs and Hasim Ansari collected 18 runs.
The man-of-the-match Bhuwan Karki claimed five wickets in his 7.3 overs spell conceding 21 runs. Karki also surpassed Nepal´s previous bowling best figure of Lakpa Lama who had claimed four wickets against Papua New Guinea in the U-19 level. Karki´s bowling also turned to be the second best bowling in the ongoing tournament.
Meanwhile, Krishna Karki, Ramnaresh Giri, Prithu Baskota and Sagar Pun claimed a wicket each. Giri was making his debut in international cricket.
SG Baard scored the highest 56 runs for Namibia while Z Groenewald scored 54 runs. Baard was bowled out by Aire.
Earlier, in the group stage, Nepal was unable to win a single match slimping to defeats against Australia by 212 runs, Ireland by 14 runs and England by 127 runs. Similarly, in the plate quarterfinal, Nepal was handed an eight-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka.
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