Kathmandu, June 22
Nepal lost to the West Indies by 101 runs in their third match of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier at the Harare Sports Club in Harare on June 22.
In what was their second match against a test nation, Nepal won the toss and decided to bowl first. Like in the second match against the USA, Karan KC once again struck early as he sent Kyle Mayers in his first over. With the ball moving around a bit, the West Indies batters were very cautious as Johnson Charles was caught behind off the bowling of Gulshan Jha.
Captain Shai Hope and opener Brandon King tried to settle the innings but King’s weakness against spin was once again his downfall as he was bowled by legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane who took his first wicket of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers.
The innings then took a turn as Hope and Nicholas Pooran started to play attacking strokes to put pressure on the Nepali bowlers.
Pooran was dropped twice by Aasif Sheikh and made Nepal pay as she smashed the ball to all parts of the ground to score his second-century finish with 115 of 94 balls. Hope also played a magnificent inning as he anchored his team’s innings with 132 of 129 balls.
The two playing such attacking cricket then gave players like Rovman Powell and Jason Holder to take the score to 339 of 50 overs.
Lalit Rajbanshi who started and finished Nepal’s bowling innings was the pick of the bowlers as he took 3 wickets for 52 runs. KC, Jha, Lamichhane and Dipendra Singh Airee took a wicket each.
In reply, Nepal got off to a horrible start as Kushal Burtel and Bhim Sarki were back in the dugout by the fifth over. Aasif Sheikh and Rohit Paudel soon followed as the Nepali batters struggled with the short ball throughout the game.
Aarif Sheikh and Gulshan Jha showed some fight but the total proved too much for the associate nation as Nepal were restricted to 238 runs.
Jason Holder was the pick of the bowlers as he took three wickets for 34 runs and trouble the batters throughout the game.
Nepal will play the Netherlands on June 24. They will have to beat the Netherlands if they want to reach the super sixes.
