KATHMANDU, July 18: The second consecutive five-wicket-haul by skipper Sandeep Lamichhane helped Nepal win as many matches with relative ease. Nepal defeated Malaysia by five wickets after bundling them out for 58 runs in ongoing ICC U-19 World Cup Division-1 Asia Qualifiers hosted by Singapore.
Aasif Sheikh hinted to be gaining some form as he played a cameo of 23 runs at top of the order to ensure Nepal chase down the meager target of 59 runs made by Malaysia. Aasif, now donning the wicket-keeping gloves, smashed five boundaries as Nepal kept losing the wickets of Sandeep Sunar, Aadil Khan and Dipendra Airee at the other end for six, five and four runs respectively. Pranit Thapa Magar took charge of the chase after Nepal lost the wicket of Aasif to Malaysian bowler Muhammad Amir. He scored 18 runs including a four and a six. Nepal won the match by five wickets losing Anil Sah for a duck before Rohit Poudel scoring the winning boundary.
Earlier, Nepal won the toss and elected to bowl first. Nepal made one change and brought Aadil Khan replacing Prakash KC in the playing XI. The captain led from the front as teenage leg-spinner registered the bowling figures of 8.5-1-17-5 following his five wickets in last game against Singapore to take his tally to 10 wickets in just two matches. Malaysia was dismissed for 58 runs in 25.5 overs. Off-spinner Pawan Sarraf notched up three miserly wickets launching the devastation of Malaysia innings in tandem with skipper from another end. None of the batsmen could reach double figures as Malaysian captain Virandeep Singh and Haiqal Khair's nine runs each ending up to be highest. Sandeep Sunar and Kishore Mahato took one wicket each. Nepal conceded 11 extra runs which were the highest scorer of the innings.
Sandeep Lamichhane was adjudged man of the match.
Sandeep Lamichhane and Sompal Kami take one wicket each in ICC...
Nepal plays Afghanistan in its third match on Thursday, July 20 starting at 7:15 AM NST.
Afghanistan make it two in two
Afghanistan right-arm seamer Yusuf Zazai was adjudged man of the match for picking up five wickets to bundle out Singapore for 92 runs. Afghanistan chased down the total in 18th over winning the match by seven wickets taking them on top of the league table on net run-rate.
