E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, MAR 10 - Before the tournament began, the 15-year-old lad from Narayanghat must have had plenty of jitters. But after his match winning performance with both bat and the ball on Tuesday, all-rounder Nischal Pandey could not be more confident.

After guiding Nepal to a comprehensive 101-win run over Kuwait, Nischal said, “My happiness knows no bounds. I would have been satisfied even if I had been able to deliver only with either the bat or the ball.”

Nischal’s all-round performance helped Nepal register second consecutive win at the ACC U-16 Elite Cup on Tuesday. Sent in to bat, Nischal set the platform for a total of 183 runs with his half century. He returned with the ball to take five wickets as Kuwait were all out in 25 overs.

Nischal plotted Kuwait’s down fall as he took the first wicket in the ninth over as he bowled Zakaria Ali (20 runs). Three balls later the all-rounder had the new batsman Abdul Jabar caught behind for a duck. Bibek Chaudhary sent Nasher Rashed (12 runs) back to the seats and Kuwait were 39-3.

Ali Zaheer then held the Kuwati innings together with his 27 runs but Nischal played the spoilsport as he had Ali trapped leg before in the 21st over. He went on to take three wickets in the over to leave Kuwait tottering at 71-6. He ended with figures of five wickets for 15 runs from his eight-over spell.

Rest of the batting collapsed as Kuwait were bundled out for 82 runs in 25 overs. Bibek grabbed three wickets while Rajiv Shah and Sushan Shrestha shared one each.

Earlier, Nischal (58 runs) and Sharad Khadka (33 runs) added 70 runs for the opening wicket at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground. Nasher broke the partnership in the 16th over. Apart from Satish Bhagat’s 29 runs the middle order failed to capitalise on a solid start as the hosts failed to score 200 runs. Naser and Ali Zaheer ended with three wickets each while Abdul Jabar took two.

Nepal’s coach Roy Dias hailed Nischal’s performance and expressed his happiness with the win. However, he was not satisfied with his team’s batting. “I am happy we won by such a big margin. However, the middle order did not click today,” Dias said. “With such a good start we should have scored 200 runs.” “The next match against Bahrain is crucial and we need to improve our performance if we are to reach semi-final,” he added. Despite two wins from as many matches Nepal need a victory in the match against Bahrain to book their berth in the last four.

In the other matches of the day, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong won their respective games. Saudi Arabia thumped Thailand by 159 runs at Engineering Ground. Chasing a target of 234 runs Thailand were all out for 74 runs. Modh Abdulla (76runs) was the highest scorer for Saudi Arabia. In the other match played at Birendra Sainik Ground, Hong Kong routed Bahrain by 113 runs.

Posted on: 2010-03-10 08:45

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