Kathmandu- Nepal’s batting fragility took a troll again in the 2nd match of ICC WCL Championship against Scotland as they were defeated by nine wickets after being restricted to a low total of just 167 runs, being invited to bat first at Ayr on friday.
Scotland chased 110 runs the 14th overs to record a nine wicket win in a rain shortened match as rain stopped several hours of play on Friday. Scotland were 15/0 in 1.4 overs when the play was stopped on Friday, and the match was resumed on Saturday with Scotland requiring 95 runs in 20.2 overs.
Sompal Kami struck in just the next over to put Scotland 20/1 in 2.2 overs but that wicket of Coetzer (7 runs) was just a consolation wicket. Matthew Cross went on to score a quick fire fifty to help Scotland chased 110 comfortably in the 14th over.
Earlier on Friday, Scotland won the toss and invited Nepal to bat fist. Nepal kept losing wicket since the start as none of the batsman crossed 40 runs mark, eventually being all out for just 167 runs in 49.1 overs. With match being called off for Friday, Scotland’ll will start the chase tomorrow on reserve day, if rain stays away, as per the ICC rules.
Sharad Veswakar top scored for Nepal with 30 runs from 66 balls, and was involved in a 33 runs partnership for the fifth wicket with Pradeep Airee, who scored 16 runs off 34 balls. Gyanendra Malla, who too scored 16 runs, went on to score 400 runs in List A cricket, becoming the first Nepal batsman to do so.
Paras Khadka 10 off 11 balls, Mahesh Chettri 3 runs off 8 balls, Anil Mandal 9 runs off 21 balls, and Prithu Baskota 16 runs off 42 balls failed miserably with the bat.
Basant Regmi 19 runs, and Avinash Karn 17 runs off 12 balls guided Nepal past 150 mark, and reach upto 167 runs. Right-arm medium-fast Alasdiar Evans was the pick of the bowler grabbing 3 wickets, conceding just 18 runs in 10 overs. Other pacers Safyaan Sharif and Gavin Main also got two wickets to their name.
With this win Scotland grabbed important 4 points from 2 matches in the ICC WCL Championship table, while Nepal’s miserable stay in Ireland, and Scotland came to an end with yet another miserable defeat. Nepal’s cricket team returns home on August 3.