Nepal’s hopes of reaching the super league of the ICC U-19 World Cup cricket tournament came to an end on Tuesday after Zimbabwe defeated Nepal by 2 runs in the second match held in the Colombo Cricket ground on Tuesday.
Nepal opted to field first after winning the toss. Zimbabwe made 201 runs in 49.5 overs losing all wickets. At one point, the Africans were reduced to 90-6 but they recovered to reach 201.
Seam bowler Paras Khadra was superb for Nepal taking 4-28 in 9 overs while opening bowler Amrit Bhattarai was impressive with 1-27 in 10 overs. Off-spinner Ratan Rauniyar captured 1-29 in his 10 over spell.
In reply, Nepal could only muster 199 runs in 50 overs losing nine wickets. Kaniska Chaugain was the highest scorer for Nepal with 78 runs while Sarad Bheswakar and Paras Khadka scored 38 and 28 runs respectively.
At one point, Nepal was cruising at 150-4 in reply, but they lost two quick wickets to reach 158-6. Nepal still had a chance to win at the end but Zimbabwean bowler Gary Balance took two wickets in the final over with his leg-spin to secure a victory that all but guarantees Zimbabwe a place in the Super League.
It was brave captaincy from S Williams to go with the spinners in the last over as a couple of bad balls would have cost them the match.
“We had a look at the Nepal batsmen and could see that while they were fine with the ball coming onto the bat, they struggled when they had to wait for the ball to come to them. So in the last couple of overs, we made a deliberate attempt to take the pace off the ball and the spinners saved us,” the Zimbabwean captain said.
The two sides are part of Group D that also includes England and Ireland, who Zimbabwe beat in their opening match on Sunday.
Nepal will take on European qualifier Ireland on Thursday in its last match of the league phase.
Earlier, England defeated Nepal by 77 runs in the tournament on Monday.
Nepal had defeated Scotland and Namibia in practice matches played before the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2006 campaign.
The top two teams from each group qualify for the Super League series while the bottom two go to the Plate Championship. Nepal can get the opportunity to play in plate championship despite this loss.
Sixteen countries are taking part in the tournament.