Nepal’s undermined batting helped Oman to register famous 6 wickets victory against them.
Winning the toss, Oman invited Nepal to have bat first and restricted them on the modest total of 138 runs. Oman’s prime pacer, Kaleemullah led his army with 4 wickets in his regular bowling quota of 10 overs. He threw two maiden overs in his way to procured excellent figure of (10-2-28-4). The worth of his four wickets increased as it was of Nepal’s skipper Paras Khadka and Vice-captain, Gyanendra Malla respectively. He also sent back two of most promising Nepal’s youngsters, Aarif Sheikh and Rohit Kumar Paudel. He was well supported by Bilal Khan (9-1-13-2), as his performance cannot be overshadowed. His economical (1.44) bowling helped other bowlers to chipped in with wickets from another end. Odedra (01), Khawar Ali (01), and Fiazz Bhutt (01) were other players to register their name in Wicket’s column.
For Nepal, it was very poor show with the bat. They were never over Oman in today’s clash, started with the lost of Gyanendra Malla (07) in 5th over itself. Paras Khadka yet again promoted himself at no.3 and shared 28 runs stand with Dilip Nath, which initially increased Nepal’s hope. But that didn’t last too long as Dilip Nath (19) was caught by Fiaz Bhutt. After then, wickets started to fell for Nepal as snow in mountainous side in Winter. Aarif Sheikh (06) and Paras Khadka (17) got out within further 15 runs. Dipendra Singh Airee (20) and Sharad Vesawkar (22) added 36 runs for fifth wicket. No one except Sompal Kami (17) really could contribute from down the order, hence Nepal were bundled out in 46th overs with 138 runs on board
In reply, Oman haven’t started it ideally and lost their opener, Khadye (01) too early. But it was healed by 35 runs stand between Jatinder Singh (24) and Aqib Llyas (46) for second wicket before Lamichhane uprooted Jatinder’s stump.
Oman never let Nepal to have upper-hand in the match as they created 46 runs partnership for third wicket between Llyas and Wategaonkar (37). In the end unbeaten 37 runs and 16 runs from Wategaonkar and Sultan respectively made sure that Oman won’t collapse in tricky chase.
For Nepal, Sandeep Lamichane picked up two wickets followed by Basant Regmi and Sompal Kami a wicket each. There wasn’t anything to blame for bowlers as Nepal’s batsmen clearly let their team down.
Oman will face host Namibia in Wanderers on Sunday whereas Nepal will play against UAE in Trustco United on same fixture. Both Oman and Nepal have two points each after completion of their two respective matches. Nepal is placed in third position followed by Oman in fourth position. While, Canada top the chart with same two points just above UAE on second spot.
Top two side of this tournament will open their ICC World Cup 2019 door and will placed themselves in ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018 which will commences on March in Zimbabwe.
