Man-of the-match Paras scored 69 to help Nepal chase Jersey´s 174 in 44.5 overs with 12 overs remaining. [break]
Coming in at 29/2, after Nepal had lost both the openers cheaply, the captain leading his team for the first time in a 50-over match played with responsibility to build his knock.
Mehboob Alam (7) and Dipendra Chaudhary (13) became victims of Ryan Driver, the Jersey captain with an experience of 25 first class matches. Mehboob failed in an attempt to hit big while Dipendra was caught at mid-off trying to chip over.
Shakti Gauchan and Paras then played with patience -- at the slowest scoring rate making two runs an over -- before getting over the bowlers.
Shakti played the knock typical to him scoring 32 off 62 balls with three fours and partnered 68 runs for the third wicket with Paras. “We know the wicket, and we wanted to stay as long as possible,” Paras later said.
Sharad Vesawkar then joined Paras and batted with a form that he had been missing for a long time. The pair batted with such dominance that they added 65 in 50 balls before Paras was out.
At 69 off 66 balls, Paras tried to sweep Benjamin Stevens and was bowled around the leg. He was frustrated to be out when the team needed 13 more for victory, but his knock that included nine fours and two sixes ensured the thumping victory.
Sharad got 33 off 44 balls with three fours and a six. The six that he pulled over deep forward square leg was the winning shot. “We just did not bowl into the right areas,” commented Jersey captain Driver.
Earlier, Driver won the toss and elected to bat first only to see Nepali opening pacers bowl brilliantly. Mehboob Alam and Binod Das bowled perfectly for 10 overs giving away just 26 runs and taking two wickets.
Mehboob, who gave away eight runs in six overs, got opener Mathew Hague in the first over when he was caught by a stepping-back Paras at mid-off. Binod got Jonathan Gough, caught brilliantly by a diving Gyanendra Malla.
Opener Dean Morrison and Samuel da la Haye stabilized the innings -- frustrating the Nepali camp to an extent that Paras was forced to try a few things with his bowlers in search of a breakthrough.
The breakthrough finally came in the 24th over when Basanta Regmi trapped da la Haye in front. Da la Haye scored 38 off 46 and added 71 with Morrison.
Morrison played a patient knock of 62 off 112 balls and was in an anchor role. He was out eighth after seeing most of his teammates failing to cope the spin and some brilliant fielding effort that saw three of the Jersey batsmen run-out.
Off spinner Sanjam Regmi and Shakti got two wickets each while Rahul Kumar BK got one to bowl the team out in 44.5 overs.
“Not batting for 50 overs is a mistake in one-day cricket,” Driver said, adding that the wickets were a lot more different than they were used to. “It has a lot of turn,” he added.
Driver believed that they took the batting powerplay at the wrong time -- ´my mistake of course´ -- and lauded Nepal´s effort.
Paras admitted there was ´low intensity´ during the match but said the match went according to their plan. “We knew the wickets well and we knew how it plays,” he said, adding that their plan involved staying at the wicket before charging up.
On Sunday, Nepal take on Singapore, who beat Bahrain by 126 runs on Saturday, at the IOE Ground.
US, Singapore register wide margin victories
The United States and Singapore registered wide margin victories in their first matches during the Pepsi World Cricket League Division 5 on Saturday.
The US eased past Fiji by 285 runs at the Pulchowk Cricket Ground while Singapore thrashed Bahrain by 126 runs at the TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur.
Fiji, winning the toss, made the US bat first. Fiji got early success as US opener Carl Wright was run out for 1 run in the very first over. However, other US batsmen proved Fiji´s decision of fielding first wrong as they piled up a mammoth total of 353 runs in the limited 50 overs losing their eight wickets.
Opener Orlando Baker and Steve Massiah produced a 129-run third wicket partnership for the US. Baker contributed 46 runs while man-of-the-match Massiah was run out at his personal score of 74 runs. Lennox Cush completed his half-century before Tikovanualevu Kida caught him off Josefa Dabea.
Among the big run contributors, Rashard Marshall was the most devastating. Marshall struck 61 runs off just 28 balls with eight boundaries and four sixes. Dabea was the most successful Fijian bowler as he picked four wickets.
In reply, Fiji collapsed early in their innings. Kevin Darlington claimed three early wickets, including that of both the Fijian openers. Dabea (13 runs) was the only batsman to score in double digits. Fiji, however, acquired nearly one third of their total from extras. American bowlers gave 21 extra runs to Fiji.
As Cush and Timroy Allen claimed a wicket each, Imran Awan took three more wickets to rattle the Fiji team. Saurabh Verma and Baker shared the last two wickets to wrap up the Fijian innings.
Likewise, Singapore pleased their Sri Lankan coach Marvan Atapattu in their first match after the Sri Lankan star took over the responsibility of the team.
Singapore elected to bat first at the TU Cricket Ground. Openers Buddika Mendis and Chetan Suryawanshi paid the bill for their captain´s decision and stood for a 95-run opening partnership. Mendis scored 39 runs while Chetan scored 54 runs.
Monish Arora (33 runs), Riaz Hussein (32 runs) and Saad Janjua (24 runs) took over the pressure in the middle order to compile 224 runs for Singapore in the limited 50 overs losing eight wickets. Adil Hanif claimed three wickets while Zafar Zaheer and Tahir Dar took two wickets each.
In reply, Bahrain were packed up for 98 runs in 33.3 overs. They had a horrible start and lost three wickets at the score of 16. Ashraf Yaqoob (11 runs) and Adil Hanif (26 runs) and Tahir Dar (21 runs) attempted some resistance in the middle order but they all failed to prevent the huge loss.
Manoj Kumar and Anish Param took three wickets each while Saad Janjua claimed two wickets for Singapore.
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