Nepal, Qatar move into semifinals

KATHMANDU, Feb 7: Nepal and Qatar entered the semifinals of the ACC U-17 Elite Cup from Group A winning their respective matches on Saturday.



Nepal defended a lowly total of 77 against Hong Kong at the BSAM Ground, Bhaktapur to top Group A while Qatar qualified as runner-up after defeating Singapore by three wickets at the Institute of Engineering Ground, Pulchowk. [break]



Similarly, Malaysia edged UAE by one wicket in a Group B match played at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground, Kirtipur.



Rochak win

Spinner Rochak Bhatta led Nepal to a 28-run victory over Hong Kong which lost another match from a winning position having lost to Qatar by one wicket through a last-ball six on Thursday.






Bhatta took four wickets in his seven-over spell to bowl out Hong Kong for 49 in 31.2 overs after Nepal was bundled out for 77 in 23.1 overs after deciding to bat first. It was second successive defeat for Hong Kong after beating Singapore in the first match on Wednesday.



"Nepal outplayed us," Sher Lama, Hong Kong´s Nepali coach said after the match.



Earlier, Prithu Baskota´s decision to bat first misfired as Nepali batsmen got out playing poor shots against disciplined Hong Kong bowling backed by agile fielding. Nepal was reduced to 35/5 in no time before Akash Pariyar (14) and Bhuwan Karki (16) played patiently to add 40 valuable runs for the sixth wicket. But Akash´s run-out triggered an inexplicable batting collapse that saw Nepal lose the last five wickets for just two runs.



The other notable contributor for Nepal was Kriten Gurung who scored 12 as an opener.






"When I look at other teams, I feel our batting is the best, yet it did not click today," Roy Dias, seemingly unpleased after the innings said. "Our shot selection was very, very poor."



"Three stupid run-outs also did not help us," Dias added. Four batsmen including captain Baskota did not open their accounts. Hong Kong´s pacer Mohammad Aizaz Khan was the pick of the bowlers taking 3/21 while his new ball partner Uwaise-ur Rahman got two.



Hong Kong´s innings did not begin well. Dias had marked Avinash Karn as a player to watch before the event and he vindicated that by taking two early wickets, if he had not done so by earning Qatari coach Mohammad Amjad Baig´s praise on Wednesday.



Hong Kong went down to 17/2 and struggled to 27/2 in 14 overs at lunch.






"Still a long way to go" was what Lama told Dias during their crossover at lunch and it proved to be right. The introduction of spinners after six overs had done the trick as they blocked runs.



After lunch, they started taking wickets. Skipper Miten Khatri was run out, and then Bhatta took over. He took the next four wickets including that of topscorer Nizakat Khan (18) reducing the visitors to 43/7.



Baskota then re-introduced himself for an over and took two wickets while Bhuwan Karki, who bowled really well giving away only six runs in seven overs, took the last wicket to earn a comprehensive victory in the end. "I had told my players to play as if they were defending 50," Dias said. "And, they did."






Baskota was all smiles after surviving such a "batting flop". "We flopped in batting, silly shots," he said. "But I had faith in my bowlers."



He promised of better batting and fielding display in next matches. Nepal plays Singapore on Sunday.



Muhammed guides Qatar home

Vice-captain Taha Muhammed made an unbeaten 70 to take Qatar home in 38.2 overs after Singapore had posted a challenging total of 184/6 after electing to bat first.



Qatar seemed to be losing its way after it slumped to 44/3 in eight overs losing the prize wicket of captain Tamoor Sajjad, who came in to open, for 28 runs off 26 balls with five fours. But Muhammed added vital 38 runs for the fourth wicket with Faisal Rauf (17 off 34) and match-winning 71 runs for the sixth wicket with Ali Ishtiaq (33 off 46) to keep Qatar ahead in the match.






Qatar lost two quick wickets after it reached 180/5 to slump to 182/7 but Muhammed hit a square drive for four to take his team to the semifinals. The keeper batsman hit eight fours in his 102-ball knock that earned him the man-of-the-match award.



Singapore had itself to blame for the loss. Singapore was lucky to get away after dropping dangerous Sajjad on 19, but diminutive tweaker Darshan Chouhan floored an easy return catch when Muhammad was on 30 in the 21st over to let Qatar off the hook.



Qatar had other things to worry about apart from the match against Singapore. Hong Kong had bundled out Nepal for 77 runs at the BSAM Ground, Bhaktapur and a victory there for Hong Kong could have spelt doom for Qatar even after its victory over Singapore.



Having lost to Nepal by 104 runs in the first match and edging Hong Kong by just a wicket off the last ball Qatar had a very poor net run rate. Nepal could have lost to Hong Kong today and still qualified for the semifinals from Group A with a victory over Singapore in its last match Sunday on superior run rate.



With Hong Kong also having a better net run rate, Qatar would have lost out for the semifinal spot on run rate after a three-way tie of two wins with Nepal and Hong Kong.






"Thank God, Nepal won that match," a relieved Qatari coach Mohammad Amjad Baig told after the match.



The Qatari camp was closely following Nepal´s batting and looked more worried about Nepali batting debacle than the magnificent third-wicket partnership of 117 runs between Singaporean skipper Timothy Singham and Mohit Kulkarni that seemed to be taking the match away from Qatar.



"Yes, we were following Nepal´s progress but we did not tell our boys about that," Baig said reasoning that Nepal´s impending loss would have demoralized his players.






Earlier, Singham played a magnificent innings of 94 runs, justifying his decision to bat, to put Singapore in a strong position. Coming in to bat at 14/2 in 7.5 overs, he rescued Singapore in the company of opener Kulkarni, who made 49 off 93 balls with four fours.



Kulkarni was unlucky to miss a deserving fifty as he missed a juicy full toss from Sajjad that deserved to be put in to the stands, like Singham had done two balls earlier to reach his fifty, and was adjudged lbw.






Singham continued to bat aggressively and was in hunt to complete an unlikely century. With three balls to go in the innings, he needed 14 runs to complete his century. He hammered the first of them over Saad Khan at long off for a six and then took a couple to move to 94. But he found Khan just inside the ropes while going for a six off the last ball.



Sajjad took three wickets with his mixture of medium pace and inviting spin while opening bowler Rahul Ramesh took a couple of wickets for Qatar.



Narrow escape for Malaysia

Malaysia survived a calamitous batting collapse to edge UAE by a wicket to spice up the semifinal race.



Malaysia seemed to be cruising to a comfortable victory making 104/2 in 23 overs while chasing UAE´s paltry total of 136 runs with opener Zubair Norazmi (44 off 81) and Muhammad Ramli (17 off 17) at crease. But it lost the next seven wickets for 15 runs to slump to 119/9 in 32.4 overs before last man Mohammad Bakri (9 off 18) and No 10 Kavin Kumar (3 off 19) took it home with 13 balls to spare.



No 3 Keitan Goonasageran made 26 off 42 for Malaysia while UAE skipper Mohammad Salar Waqar took 4/19 to trigger Malaysian collapse in the company of Siddhartha Shekhar (2/25) and Ameya Jayant Dighe (2/16).






With today´s win, Malaysia has maintained its perfect record and looks favorite to enter the semifinals from Group B. But a loss to Bahrain, which hammered Kuwait in the first match before losing to UAE in the second, in its last match at the Institute of Engineering Ground, Pulchowk and an expected UAE victory over Kuwait in the other Group B match at the BSAM Ground, Bhaktapur on Sunday could make life difficult for Malaysia.



Earlier, Kamarul Anvar Azhar bowled splendidly to bundle UAE out for 136 in 39 overs after it decided to bat first. Man-of-the-match Azhar took 5/15 in eight overs to peg UAE back after it made a rollicking start adding 39 runs in 7.3 overs through openers Mohammad Salar Waqar (24 off 24) and Sauravkant Gir (29 off 57).



But Azhar and Mohammad Ammar Rusli (2/24) reduced UAE to 104/8 and UAE reached 136 only through No 8 Siddhartha Shekhar´s rearguard action of 23 runs.