Captain Paras Khadka played yet another blazing innings scoring 71 not out as Nepal chased Bahrain´s lowly 114 with 145 balls to spare. Basanta Regmi and Sanjam Regmi had led the bowling on the spinners´ track early, sharing seven wickets between them. [break]
After openers Dipendra Chaudhary and Mehboob Alam went back early falling to spinners introduced in the second over, Paras came on the field to join Shakti Gauchan.
Paras attacked the bowling and played some glorious cricket shots during his knock. He reached 50 in 50 balls with five boundaries and a six and continued his assault on Bahrain spinners.
His 65-ball knock garnered 71 runs which also included nine fours and three sixes. This was his seventh half-century for the national team in one-dayers and the second in the event after 69 against Jersey on Saturday.
With the innings, Paras also became the leading run-scorer in the event with 158 runs in three matches at an average of 79. Dean Morrison of Jersey is eight runs behind.
Shakti largely played a supporting role rotating strike and enjoying the show. He remained unbeaten on 27 with two fours from 69 balls.
“It was fantastic batting,” coach Roy Dias commented. “Shakti is also batting well in the event.”
“Obviously there was some pressure after the openers returned early, but our plan was to stay and play on,” Paras said after the match. “The plan worked well.”
Earlier, Nepal won the toss and invited Bahrain to bat first. After losing Imran Sajjad in the first over to Mehboob Alam, Shahzad Ahmed and Abdul Majeed played brilliantly to dominate over pacers.
The pair added 44 in eight overs playing against Mehboob and Binod Das on the pitch that had little support for pace. Basanta Regmi was introduced in the tenth over and his introduction put on brakes on the runs.
He bowled a maiden over followed by a wicket-maiden prompting Paras to use more spinners. Ahmed fell to Basanta on 27 while Majeed stayed till the 20th over when Sanjam got his hands on the ball.
Sanjam got Majeed (26) on his first ball. He could have seen a brilliant first over had Mehboob and Shakti held on catches offered at gully and silly point.
Basanta, Sanjam, Rahul BK and Shakti made it hard for Bahrain batsmen to score and they reached 100 in 35 overs losing seven wickets.
Wickets fall at regular intervals with Basanta finishing with 4/11 in 8.5 overs and Sanjam adding two more to stay atop the table of the leading wicket takers. He now has nine - two more than Basanta who is tied in second position with three others. Rahul grabbed two in his 10 overs.
“It clearly showed that Nepal were better prepared than us; we could not read the wicket,” Bahrain captain Yaser Sadeq said. “We are not used to playing on the turf.” Sadeq also felt sad that they are now out of contention. “It is sad, but we had nothing for preparation,” he added.
Dias believed the pitch was not as good as it should have been. “Normally, winning team does not make comments on the pitch, but this pitch turned from the first over and it is not good for one-day games,” he said.
He said that he wanted to continue with the same winning spirit in upcoming matches.
Nepal are playing Fiji on Wednesday at the TU Ground.
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