In a major confidence booster ahead of 3rd/4th play-off in the ongoing U19 Quadrangular ODI series in Lucknow, India, and the upcoming ACC U19 Asia Cup in Bangladesh, Nepal U19 have scored a low-scoring thriller win over Afghanistan U19 on 16th Sep 2018.
https://twitter.com/EkanaOfficial/status/1040948164633583620?s=19
The match, serving as a dress-rehearsal before the play-off match on 18th Sep 2018, saw Nepal U19 defend their below-par score of 189 by bowling out Afghanistan U19 for 164 to win the match by 25 runs.
The match belonged to Pawan Sarraf’s calm and composed innings of 78 runs coming in at 5/60 for Nepal U19 at one stage and pulling them to their eventual total, remaining unbeaten. During their bowling innings, Sagar Dhakal’s 4-wicket haul coupled with Sarraf’s economical spell helped Nepal get over the line.
Afghanistan were somewhat placed nicely at 124/5 in the 37th over, needing over 60+ odd runs in the final 13 overs at one stage, but the late middle-order and lower-order couldn’t hold onto their wickets for a bit longer as increasing asking rate led them to go for their shots and lose their wickets in the process.
Ijaz Ahmad Mehran held the innings together with a gritty half-century but when he got out on the first delivery of the 48th over, the last pair couldn’t add much and got bowled out in the very same over.
With both the team’s in the same group in the U19 Asia Cup, these matches are providing crucial match-time in the middle for the young players from both the countries, who don’t get much matches to play or train with in domestic competitions at home.
Brief Scores:
Nepal U19 189 all out in 49.3 overs (Pawan Sarraf 78 n.o, Sundeep Zora 28, Rashid Khan 24, Nawid Mohammad Kabir 3/36, Arif Khan Dawlatzai 2/13, Abid Mohammadi 2/18) beat Afghanistan U19 164 all out in 47.4 overs (Ijaz Ahmad Mehran 57, Reyaz Hassan 38, Abdul Rahman Rahmani 37, Sagar Dhakal 4/29, Rashid Khan 2/26, Kamal Airee 2/28) by 25 runs
