A hard-fought match between two closely-matched teams ended in a win for Nepal by runs in the semi-final of the ACC U-16 Elite Cup. Nepal will now meet Singapore, who beat Hong Kong in the other semi-final, in the Final on Tuesday.

Malaysia’s bowlers and Nepal’s batsmen arm-wrestled for dominance throughout Nepal’s innings. The bowling was disciplined, invariably pitched-up and on a wicket-to-wicket line. Tharmaraj Mohan again shone with the new ball and once spin was introduced in the seventh over with Mohammad Fetri Sham, Malaysia’s bowlers were on top for a long period of time.

Fetri Sham made the big breakthrough having Nepal’s captain and triple Man of the Match in the tournament (two 50 s and 14 wickets in three matches) caught at slip from one tossed up outside off-stump, inviting the drive. Malaysia celebrated hugely, they knew how important Pandeys wicket was. Nepal spent a period consolidating thereafter as another two wickets fell in the next nine overs. After 20 overs they were 54 for 3 and that they made another 108 in the second half of their innings was due to some sound batting from No. 4 Dipendra Chand (44 off 58 balls, 1 four) and wicket-keeper Sanam Shrestha (24 off 27 balls).

Nepal’s Dipendra Chand

The scoreboard kept ticking over through well-taken runs, the ball hardly ever finding the boundary. Malaysia set good fields and their fielders backed-up their bowlers. Still, 162 was going to be a challenging score to chase.

	Hari Chaulagain gets rumbled

Especially with the four left-arm spinners Nepal has. The wicket was taking a lot of turn, albeit slowish, what was critical was the bounce available. National players Binod Kumar Das and Sharad Vesawkar who were watching the match both thought 150 would have been enough for Nepal to defend.

For all of their closely-matched abilities on the field, Malaysia had a significant advantage over Nepal’s cricketers in that they were relative match veterans the bulk of them having played regular club cricket back home, whereas Nepal’s cricketers hadn’t played a single match together before this tournament.

Just like the 2006 Nepalis who won that year’s ACC U-15 Elite Cup. Whatever happens in those brief pre-tournament preparatory camps, happens well.

Nepal’s Nischal Pandey is the product of an academy run by a former Nepali captain Raju Khadka in Chitwan (110 kilometres from Kathmandu) and it was he, brought on in the seventh over at the Mahaboob Alam End who got the breakthrough, bowling Razlan Zalati off the inside edge for 8. Malaysia were 28 for 1 after 10 overs, the 300-strong crowd at Tribhuvan increasingly making their presence felt.

The sky was clouding up now too as the game settled into an attritional battle. Two sharp chances were dropped by Nepal off Malaysia’s second-wicket pair of Amerul Hussein and captain Syadhat Ramli but Bibek Chaudhary’s left-arm spin accounted for Ramli at the start of the 14th over (38-2) Amerul fell soon after and at 44 for 3 in the 16th over, Malaysia needed to score at 5 an over from then on to win.

Ahmad Tajuddin had made a match-winning 45* against Saudi Arabia in Malaysia’s second match but he couldn’t do it all by himself if Malaysia were going to win this one. Bibek Chaudhary struck again, bowling Fetri Sham with the score on 69 in the 24th over and then Tajuddin, increasingly frustrated, lifted one to long-on and Malaysia were in serious trouble. 79 for 4 and more than a run-a-ball needed now.

With 10 overs to go Malaysia needed 74, five wickets in hand. The sun came back out now but the boundaries had dried up a long time before. Tharmaraj Mohan’s leg-side 4 off pace-bowler Devendra Somare in the 33rd over was the first in more than 10 overs and he fell the ball after. It just wasn’t Malaysia’s day with the bat. Azwan Idris, Malaysia’s last recognized batsmen fell in the deep two balls later. Rajiv Shah’s slow left-arm snared two in the 37th over and it was all over at the start of the 39th.

Man of the Match Dipendra Chand said afterwards, “taking the ones and twos upset the rhythm of the Malaysian batsmen and helped us make those two important partnerships. We still have things we can do better and will probably have to in the Final.”

Not flawless by Nepal and their coach Roy Dias will be working on catching and shot-selection up to the Final.

ACC U-16 Elite Cup
Semi-Final 1: Nepal v Malaysia at Tribhuvan University Ground
NEPAL WON BY 32 RUNS
Nepal won the toss and chose to bat
Nepal: 162 all out off 40 overs (D.Chand 44; S.Ramli 3-25)
Malaysia: 130 off 38.1 overs (B.Chaudhary 3-23, R.Shah 3-13)
Man of the Match: Dipendra Chand (Nepal)
Scorecard

Pictures by Sundar Shrestha

Tournament Page

Filed March 14th, 2010