NEPAL to face UAE in Semifinal friday

NEPAL, booked its place in semifinal after yesterday’s match between Qatar and Kuwait, will face UAE  in 2nd Semifinal friday.

Today, Nepal won the match against Kuwait by 7 wickets. After winning the toss Kuwait chose to bat first which was made worng decision by Nepalese Bowlers, picking 5 wickets early. Then they got some resistance being aggressive too against quite good bowling attack. After putting a good partnership then again they lost 4 wickets in quick succession. then come good last wicket partnership to end with 103 in 38.1 overs where Nepalese Bowler Mahboob and Shakti got 3 wickets each.

After getting low target to chase, it is assumed that NEPAL might win with all 10 wickets in hand but that does not happened. The top order fails again as tournament goes to semifinal stage, it lost 3 wickets quickly and gave a chance to pressurise themselves. Then, Nepal started to play very causously and slow which allowed them to get the target without loosing further any wickets. Nepal wins by 7 wickets in hand in 29 overs and finished leader in the group.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan has won their match against bahrain and over came against UAE to top the group. Afghanistan and UAE has the identical points with 3 win and 1 loss each but Afghanistan has got better net run rate to go ahead as group winner. So, it is clear that UAE is facing NEPAL and Afghanistan is facing Hongkong in semifinals. This is the repeatation of last ACC TROPHY 2006 where UAE beat Nepal and Hongkong beat Afghanistan to play in final.

Here is the scorecard:

Nepal takes on Kuwait today

Pramod Pokhrel, The Himalayan Times, July 29:

Nepal are planning to go into the last league match of the ACC Trophy Elite Cup against Kuwait here at the Selangor Turf Club on Wednesday with a different set up.

Nepal’s semi-final berth was confirmed today after Qatar defeated Kuwait and coach Roy Luke Dias has decided to include Dipendra Chaudhary and Sanjam Regmi in the team.

Sanjam will replace Basanta Regmi, who got injured while fielding against Singapore on Monday. “Basanta has recovered and can play tomorrow, but I will go for Sanjam tomorrow,,” said Dias, who also hinted at dropping one of the openers for the match.

The opening pair of Paresh Lohani and Kanishka Chaugain has not been able to build the foundation so far. Paresh, who scored 42 against Hong Kong in the first match, failed to score in double figures in next two matches, while Chaugain – who returned to the national team after a two-year gap – has not been able to cross 20.

Dias has planned to include Chaudhary in place of Lohani or Chaugain, but has not decided yet about the combination. Chaugain will open along with wicketkeeper Mahesh Chhetri if Paresh gets dropped and Chaudhary will bat in the middle order.

“Though we are in semi-finals, we should not take Kuwait lightly. Each match is as important as final in cricket and we have to progress with high morale,” said Dias.

Nepal have won all the three previous matches against Kuwait in 2002, 2005 and 2006. “We have beaten them on all occasions but we have to be careful as Kuwait have a number of good expats in their team,” said assistant coach Samsung Jung Thapa.

PROBABLES: Binod Das (captain), Paras Khadka, Mehboob Alam, Raj Kumar Pradhan, Dipendra Chaudhary, Sanjam regmi, Kanishka Chaugain, Mahesh Chhetri, Sharad Vesawkar, Shakti Gauchan and Gyanendra Malla.