Victory against Afghanistan gives Nepal confidence ahead of the U-19 Men's World Cup qualifiers
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
After Hemant Dhami played a captaincy innings, Nepal won an exciting 1-wicket victory over Afghanistan in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup Cricket on Tuesday.
The victory against Afghanistan in the tournament being held in the UAE has given Nepal a great boost of morale before the U-19 World Cup qualifiers.
Nepal had scored 84 runs and had lost 8 wickets after getting a target of 124 runs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Hemant gave victory to Nepal with Naren Saud. Hemant, who equalized the score by hitting a four on the previous ball, scored the winning run in the 42nd over.
After losing by 55 runs to Sri Lanka in the first match and by 5 wickets to Bangladesh in the second match, Nepal was out of the tournament. As Afghanistan had already lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and were eliminated from the group stage, this match was not important for both teams in terms of semi-final entry. However, before the U-19 World Cup qualifiers, Nepal has gained a lot of confidence from this victory.
Nepal is hosting the ICC U-19 Men's World Cup qualifiers from April 12 to 21. Afghanistan, Hong Kong, UAE and Oman, along with Nepal, will compete in the tournament where the winning team will advance to the ICC U-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2026. Nepal also defeated Afghanistan by 1 wicket in the U-19 World Cup held in South Africa in January this year.
Just before the U-19 World Cup, Hemant, who was out of the Nepali team due to a leg injury, scored 22 unbeaten runs with 2 fours in 33 balls. Narine was dismissed as the ninth player after scoring 26 runs off 54 balls with 2 fours. When Nepal needed 9 runs at that time, all the runs were collected by Hemant.
Top order Arjun Kumal scored 21 off 62 balls with 2 fours and bottom order Abhishek Tiwari scored 13 runs off 13 balls with 1 four and six. Others did not score double. Akash Tripathi 9, Mayan Yadav 1, Santosh Yadav 7, Naren Bhatt 2, Roshan Vishwakarma 9 and Uttam Thapamagar were out for 2 runs.
Afghanistan's Allah Ghazanfar and Khatir Stanikzai took 3 wickets each. Off-break bowler Ghazanfar, who was sold to Mumbai Indians for 48 million rupees in the Indian Premier League auction last week, dismissed Abhishek along with both Nepalese openers Akash Tripathi and Mayan Yadav with the new ball. He has been playing for Team Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi T-10 during the U-19 Asia Cup.
Earlier, Faisal Sinozada scored 52 runs from Afghanistan. He hit 4 fours and 2 sixes off 67 balls. From Nepal, Yunishvikram Thakuri and Santosh Yadav took 3-3 and Hemant and Abhishek took 2-2 wickets. Yunish took 24 runs with 3 maidens in 10 overs and Santosh spent 22 runs in 4.4 overs.
