Kathmandu, February 21
Skipper Rohit Paudel led from the front as Nepal defeated Scotland by two wickets to finish as unbeaten team in the ICC Cricket World Cup League-II here at the TU Stadium today.
Nepal registered victories in all four matches of the One Day International Tri-series for the first time raising their hopes of protecting the ODI Status. Nepal beat Scotland by three wickets in their previous encounter, while the home team defeated Namibia – the other team in tri-series – by two wickets and three wickets in two matches to claim maximum eight points from the series.
Nepal skipper Paudel won the toss for the fourth straight time and invited Scotland to take the first strike. Sandeep Lamichhane starred with the ball as the tourists were bowled out for 212 runs in 46.1 overs before Nepal recovered from a precarious position of 138-8 to reach 213-8 with 35 balls to spare, thanks to an unbeaten 75-run partnership between Paudel and Karan KC.
Chasing a tricky 213-run target, Nepal lost first five wickets with just 61 runs and the home team were reduced to 138-8 inside 32 overs.
At a time when Nepal were staring at their first defeat of the series, skipper Paudel and KC produced a brilliant partnership to lead the team to victory.
Paudel, who hit the winning boundary off Safyaan Sharif in the first ball of the 45th over bringing the crowd to its feet, remained unbeaten on 95 off 101 balls that included seven boundaries and four sixes. KC hit two fours and a six in his 31 not out off 37 balls. Former skipper Gyanendra Malla was the best contributor among top order batsmen scoring 21 off 30 balls that included four boundaries.
Kushal Malla (17) and Aasif Sheikh (12) also scored in double figures. Mark Watt took 3-29 for Scotland, while Cgris Greaves claimed two wickets and Brandon McMullen, Safyaan Shariff and Michael Leask grabbed one wicket each.
Earlier, George Munsey top scored with 50-ball 60 that included nine boundaries and two sixes. Sandeep Lamichhane made the breakthrough in the eighth over and he struck twice in consecutive balls in the 14th over to reduce Scotland to 89-3.
At one stage, Scotland were reeling at 118-5 before Matthew Cross and Brandon Mc- Mullen added 57 runs for the sixth wicket to help the team post a fighting total. Scotland then lost the last five wickets in the spare of 37 runs.
Lamichhane was the pick of the Nepali bowlers taking 4-45 from 10 overs taking his series tally to 13 wickets in four matches. He had taken three wickets each in the previous three matches. Karan KC grabbed 3-42, while Lalit Rajbanshi and Kushal Malla claimed one wicket each.
Despite winning all four matches of the series, Nepal remained unchanged at sixth place in the seven-team table with 26 points. But the four wins raised their hopes of protecting the ODI status by finishing in top five and are mathematically alive to be one of the three teams to earn a berth in the global qualifiers.
Scotland, who have already won the League-II title, remained at the top with 50 points from 36 matches.
Oman, who have played all of their 36 matches, are second on 44 points and are assured of the top three spot. Namibia are third on 37 with two matches to play, while the United States are fourth on 35 from 36 matches.
The United Arab Emirates, who have 10 matches on hand, are fifth on 27 points, one more than Nepal. Papua New Guinea are at the bottom with five points from 28 matches.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 22, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
