Kathmandu, Nov 18: Nepal was defeated by host Bangladesh in today’s group match held under the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup Cricket. During the match held at the Dhaka-based Savar Ground, Bangladesh met the target of 139 runs posted by Nepal in 24 overs at the loss of two wickets.
With this third straight victory, Bangladesh has secured its place in the semi’s becoming the winner from group ‘B’. Prior to this, it had beat Hong Kong and India. In today’s match, Nazmul Hossain alone contributed uninterrupted 59 runs to the team with two sixes and six fours in 56 balls. Another batsman for the squad Mohammad Naeem made 45 runs, Yasir Ali 18 runs and Soumya Sarkar 11 runs.
In bowling, Nepal’s Sompal Kami and Susan Bhari took one wicket each. Nepal losing the toss was put into bat first and hit 138 runs in 44.3 overs at the loss of all wickets. Nepali players except Sompal who contributed 38 runs with four fours failed to perform well. Gyanendra Malla scored 22 runs followed by Karan KC (18), Aarif Sheikh (11), Pawan Sarraf (nine), Binod Bhandari (eight), vice captain Dipendra Singh Airee (six) and Sharad Veswakar (one).
Nepal has just a slight chance ahead to advance to the semifinal. In the previous two matches, it lost the Thursday’s match to India by seven wickets and won the second match held on Saturday against Hong Kong by 40 runs. The tournament is being participated by eight countries and Nepal is in the group ‘B’. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oman and Afghanistan are in the group ‘A’. Top two teams from each group will advance towards the semis.
