Nepali batting woes, same with Hong Kong

After winning four matches in a row in the group stage, Nepal reached the semi-finals and lost two matches in a row. The previous day, UAE defeated Nepal by 6 wickets in the semi-final. With the defeat in the semi-finals, Nepal's chances of qualifying for the Asia Cup ended. If they had won against Hong Kong, they would have qualified for the ACC Emerging Cup scheduled to take place in November. That possibility of Nepal has also ended.

After winning the toss at Al Amirat in Muscat, Nepal came to bat and could score only 139 runs after losing 8 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. After Anshuman Rath scored an unbeaten 65, Hong Kong completed the target with 3 balls to spare. Player of the match He hit 4 fours and 2 sixes in 50 balls. Narsulla Rana remained unbeaten on 11 runs. Rana added all the runs in the last over when Hong Kong needed 8 runs for victory.

Babar Hayat scored 26 off 25 balls with 2 sixes and Aijaz Khan got out with 12 runs off 10 balls. Captain Nizakat Khan was dismissed for 3 runs. From Nepal, Sompal Kami took 3 wickets with 33 runs in 4 overs and Dipendra Singh Airey took 2 wickets with 27 runs in 4 overs. After Dipendra scored 20 runs with 2 fours and a six in the last over, Nepal's score was possible. Batting at 87-7 in the 14th over, Dipendra hit a total of 4 fours and 3 sixes while playing 29 balls. Before he came in to bat at number eight, Nepal was struggling to score 100 runs.

On the previous day of the tournament in Oman, Nepal, which scored only 119 runs in the semi-final, was deprived of qualifying for the Asia Cup as it failed to reach the final. Nepal continued the same poor performance in the match against Hong Kong on Saturday. Nepal's disappointing performance started with the bat of Kushal Bhurtel.

On the second ball of the innings, Kushal reached the wicketkeeper before opening the account. Another opener Asif Shaikh could also score only 5 runs. Sompal Kami, sent at number three, hit 2 fours and scored 12 runs in 7 balls. Captain Rohit Poudel was out for 21 off 19 balls and Sandeep Zora was out for 21 off 23 balls. Zora and Gulshan Jha (6) were run out on consecutive balls. Kushal Malla, who hit a six, could score only 13 runs in 14 balls. Lalit Rajvanshi remained unbeaten scoring 2 runs in 3 balls. At the end of 17 overs, Nepal could hit only 5 fours and 1 six, while Nepal's score was 100.

Bhurtel's 'hat-trick duck'

Nepali opening batsman Kushal Bhurtel has created an unwanted record. Exactly three years ago, Kushal Bhurtel entered the Twenty20 international by scoring three consecutive half-centuries in two matches against the Netherlands and one against Malaysia at the Trivi Cricket Ground in Kirtipur.

Saturday was just the opposite. He was dismissed for a wicket against Hong Kong. He was dismissed for the third game in a row. Bhurtel, who was dismissed on the first ball in the semi-final against UAE, could not open his account against Saudi Arabia either.

This is the fifth occasion that he has been 'docked out' in Twenty20 internationals. Along with this, he has made a bad record of getting the most zero outs from Nepal. Pradeep Airey was dismissed for zero in four matches earlier. Bhurtel was dismissed for the first time in his 30th match. He was dismissed lbw by Reuven Trumpelman against Namibia at Kirtipur on February 27. In the same match, Nicole Lofty Eaton scored 100 runs in 33 balls and set a record for scoring a hundred in the fewest balls in Twenty20 internationals. The day after the match against Namibia, Bhurtel also failed to score a run in the match against the Netherlands. He was dismissed by Vivienne Kingma for a wicket. Bhurtel was caught behind the stumps twice while getting out for three consecutive wickets in Oman.

He has scored 1081 runs in 43 Twenty20 international matches with one century and 8 fifties. Along with him, three other players from Nepal have scored more than 1000 runs in Twenty20 internationals.