Lalitpur, November 28:

Oman skipper Gaurav Vinay Honavar brought his team close to victory with his superb batting performance but failed to score two runs in the last six balls to hand Nepal a thrilling one-run win in the ACC U-15 Elite Cup cricket tournament here at the Institute of Engineering Ground today.

Put into to bat first after losing the toss, Nepal scored 188-9 and restricted Oman to 187-9 in their allotted 40 overs. With the third win in as many matches, the hosts also qualified for the semi-finals from Group ‘A’.

Afghanistan also made it to the semi-finals from Group ‘B’ after their third consecutive victory over United Arab Emirates (UAE) at Tribhuvan University (TU) Stadium in Kirtipur today. Afghanistan beat the UAE by five wickets.

Needing only two runs for victory with Oman skipper Honavar on strike, Nepal counterpart Prithu Banskota brought left-arm spinner Bhuwan Karki to bowl the final over. In a remarkable turn around, Bhuwan bowled a maiden over to register a memorable victory for the home team. Honavar remained unbeaten on 79. He struck 10 boundaries in his 123-ball innings.

Oman were tottering at 21-3 in the 12th over when they lost Pandya Kunal Prashanth (one), Kartik Balasubramanian (one) and Venkatesh Marghshyam (eighth) cheaply. But the fourth wicket partnership of 90-run between opener Vatsal Mukund Mehta and skipper Honavar brought Oman in a commanding position. Mehta played a fiery knock of 47 from just 46 balls, hitting five boundaries and two sixes.

Man of the match Sunil Sunar of Nepal was pick of the Nepali bowlers with 4-30 off eight overs while Pradeep Airee finished with 2-32 from seven overs. Sameer Nepal, Rochak Bhatta and Krishna Sen took one wicket apiece.

Earlier, Nepal relied on their middle order batsmen to pose a competitive total after losing openers Sagar Pun (four) and Aakash Singh Pariyar (15) cheaply. The third wicket stand of 70 runs between Prithu and Bivek Dali consolidated the Nepali innings. Prithu scored 68-ball 30 and Bivek contributed 31 off 54 balls. Sameer Nepal chipped in a quickfire 32 off 36 balls including two fours and a six while Nischal Singh Chaudhary made 23-ball 22.

Saud Haroon Khan took three and Pandya Karun Prashanth claimed two wickets for Oman. Vatsal Mukund Mehta, Sunil Saleem and Nikhil Kuruvilla bagged one wicket apiece.

At TU Stadium, Afghanistan chased the 130-run target losing five wickets in 21.1 overs. The UAE were dismissed for 129 in the 36.4 overs. Siddharth Sekhar top scored for the UAE with 51-ball 19. Afzal Khan Zazai took four wickets conceding 27 runs for Afghanistan. Hameed Ullah, Hijrat Ullah, Abdullah Sahidi and Mattiulla Nazari took one wicket each.

Afghanistan lost their openers in quick succession but Najeebullah Zadran and Abdullah Sahidi guided their team home. Zadran scored 42 off 37 balls and Sahidi made 41 off 43 balls. Jeremy Joseph claimed two while Shoaib Nasir and Jubin Sharukh took one wicket each for the UAE.

SCOREBOARD

Nepal

Sagar run out 4

Aakash lbw b Mehta 15

Prithu st Venkatesh b Kuruvilla 30

Bivek c Mehta b Karun 31

Predeep c Saleem b Karun 5

Sameer b Khan 32

Nischal c Khan b Saleem 22

Bhuwan not out 10

Krishna b Khan 3

Sunil c Balasubramanian b Khan 10

Rochak not out 2

Extras: 23 (w15, b5, lb3)

Total: 188/9 (40 overs)

Oman bowling: Balasubramanian 6-1-30-0, Mehta 5-2-12-1, Saleem 5-0-30-1,

Khan 8-1-45-3, P Karun 8-0-33-2,

Kuruvilla 8-0-30-1

Oman

V Mehta c Bhuwan b Rochak 47

P Kunal b Pradeep 1

K Balasubramanian b Sunil 1

Venkatesh b Sunil 8

GV Honavar not out 79

N Kuruvilla lbw b Sunil 14

M Hussain b Sunil 2

SH Khan c Aakash b Krishna 1

P Karun lbw b Pradeep 5

S Saleem lbw b Sameer 2

IR Bakhsh not out 0

Extras: 27 (nb6, w16, b1, lb4)

Total: 187/9 (40 overs)

Nepal bowling: Sunil 8-0-30-4,

Pradeep 7-0-32-2, Sameer 8-1-35-1,

Bivek 5-0-35-0, Bhuwan 8-1-24-0,

Rochak 3-0-16-1, Krishna 1-0-10-1