Baskota shines again

Kathmandu, June 1 :

Prithu Baskota played a captain’s knock to guide Nepal to a comfortable position on the first of the two-day ACC U-15 Cup (Elite Group) cricket tournament against Singapore in Malaysia, today.

Put into bat first by Singapore at the Kelab Alam Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Nepal scored 156 runs losing seven wickets from the allotted 60 overs.

Skipper Baskota, who had scored half century against Hong Kong, repeated the feat today as well. He scored 51 runs while Suvendu Pandey (24), Vivek Dali (14), Akash Pariyar (13) and Sagar Pun (12) contributed valuable runs to the total.

Pradeep Airee was unbeaten on 12 along with Surendra Chand (seven).

At close, Singapore were 42/2 in 25 overs. Krishna Karki claimed both the wickets for Nepal. Rezza Gaznavi took two wickets for Singapore.

The match is crucial for both the teams who are behind Malaysia in Group ‘A’.

Nepal has 19 points and Singapore is a point behind.

The team that earns more points from the match will join Malaysia, who are already in the last four, in the semi-finals.

Malaysia leads the group with 38 points, including six earned on Thursday. Nepal drew both of its matches agai-nst Malaysia and Hong Kong.