After defeating Japan in the last match of the group stage, Nepal will play UAE and Qatar in Super Six
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With Gulshan Jha's all-round performance, Nepal defeated Japan by 5 wickets on Friday and entered the Super Six as the winner of Group B in the Twenty20 World Cup Asia-East Asia Pacific Qualifiers.
After losing the toss and being invited to bat after Gulshan took 2 important wickets, Japan scored 131 runs by losing 8 wickets after playing the scheduled 20 overs. After Gulshan scored 28 unbeaten runs while becoming useful in batting as well, Nepal completed the target 2 overs ago.
Nepal defeated Kuwait by 58 runs in the first match of Group B on Wednesday. Japan won by 5 wickets against Kuwait on Thursday. Because of this, Nepal and Japan reached the second stage before playing against each other, while Kuwait was eliminated from the group stage.
As group winners, Nepal will have an extra 2 points. Nepal will play Group A winners UAE on Sunday and Qatar on Monday in the Super Six. After that two more games will be played with the winner and runner-up of Group 'C'. After the 6 teams participating in the Super Six play 4-4 matches, the top three teams will advance to the Twenty20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February-March.
Kushal Bhurtel and Asif Shaikh added 36 runs in 5 overs to give Nepal a good start. Shoma Slater dismissed Bhurtel for 21 runs off the last ball of the fifth over. Bhurtel hit 3 fours. Asif scored 38 runs in 21 balls with 1 four and 4 sixes. Sandeep Zora scored 5 runs in 7 balls and Kushal Mall got out after scoring 4 runs in 6 balls.
Captain Rohit Paudel scored 18 runs in 19 balls with 1 boundary. Gulshan Jha scored 28 and Dipendrasingh Airi remained unbeaten by scoring 14 runs. Gulshan hit 1 four and 2 sixes in 20 balls and Dipendra hit 1 four in 14 balls. From Japan, Slater spent 22 runs in 4 overs and took 2 wickets.
Earlier, Dipendra gave Japan an early shock by running out Abhishek Anand for 1 run in the fourth over with a direct throw. But after Kendall Kadowaki-Fleming and Issam Rahman shared 86 runs for the second wicket, Japan made a great comeback. Sompal Kami broke the partnership by dismissing Rahman in the 13th over. Rahman scored 31 runs off 25 balls with 1 four and 2 sixes. After Gulshan dismissed Kadowaki in the next over, Nepal took control of the game. Kadowaki played 46 balls and scored 60 runs with 5 fours and 3 sixes.
Gulshan bowled Ibrahim Takahashi for 4 runs. Sandeep Lamichhane dismissed Sabaoris Ravichandan and Declan Suzuki for 1 run each. Reo Sakurano Thomas was run out for 3 runs. Benjamin Ito Davies was dismissed for 17 off 12 balls. Gulshan and Sandeep took 2 wickets each. Gulshan spent 20 runs in 4 overs and Sandeep spent 25 runs in 4 overs. Sompal took 20 in 4 overs and Nandan Yadav spent 16 runs in 3 overs and took 1 wicket each.
After 25 years, Nepal competed with Japan in international cricket. The last time these two teams met was in the ACC Trophy in UAE in 2000, where Nepal won easily.
UAE group 'A' winner
After UAE defeated Malaysia by 6 wickets in the first match on Friday, the equation of group 'A' was completed. UAE won both matches to become the group winners. Malaysia lost both matches and was eliminated from the group stage.
Malaysia was defeated by 8 wickets against Qatar on Thursday. Qatar reached the Super Six by becoming group runners-up. UAE will have 2 points in Super Six. After Captain Mohammad Wasim scored 84 runs off 53 balls, the target of 162 runs given by Malaysia was completed by UAE by scoring 167 runs in 19.2 overs.
