After poor start in ICC WCL division III, Nepal come back as
a winner after beating Uganda in the Final of ICC WCL Division III by five
wickets. Nepal once look like the poorest team of the Tournament after losing
two matches but the Nepalese cricket team came as true winner in three league
matches Beating Bermuda, Oman and Italy. Nepal reached the final after being
placed ahead of USA and Bermuda on better run rate.
The final, in Hamilton, was a low-scoring one. Uganda chose to
bat and were shaken straightaway, with Nepal's captain Paras Khadka removing opener Arthur Kyobe for one.
They crawled along, and lost their top four cheaply, to be tottering at 39 for
4 by the end of the 22nd over. A series of cameos from the middle order helped
get them past the 150-run mark, but they could never quite break the shackles
until the last couple of overs, batting out the 50 for 151 for 8. Left-arm
medium pacer Basanta Regmi finished with 2 for 24 from his ten, to end as the
joint third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
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| ICC WCL Div IIIChampion Nepal |
Nepal's batsmen were
shaky in reply, falling to 30 for 3 in the 11th. But a 77-run stand between
opener Pradeep Airee and No. 5 Sharad Vesawkar got them back on track. They
lost two more in a hurry when Airee was out to left-arm spinner Henry Ssenyondo
for 60, but Vesawkar kept going in the company of Prithu Baskota - who
captained Nepal at the Under-19 World Cup last year - to get them over the
line. Vesawkar finished unbeaten on 50 and Nepal eventually won comfortably,
with over 10 overs to spare.
Khadka said he was happy with the way his team kept fighting,
despite losing their first two matches in the tournament. "We worked
really hard for this. Having lost the first couple of games no one gave us an
outright chance but we still believed in ourselves and our ability," he
said. "Everything worked in favour of us and, as they say, fortune favours
the brave. I feel glad, we have reached where we always wanted to, and now it
is a matter of preparing ourselves for even better."
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| Nepal Vs Uganda |
Expectedly, Uganda captain Davis
Arinaitwe, who was named Player of the Series, was disappointed with the loss,
but said the team had achieved their main goal: making it to the World Cup
Qualifiers. "Ideally, I would have liked to finish the tournament on a
high and pick up the final trophy of the whole tournament, and leave this
beautiful island as WCL winners. But qualifying for the World Cup Qualifier was
our primary objective. When we got here, we first put our sights on trying to
qualify for that tournament. So, for us, that is an achievement that we can
take back home."
The World Cup Qualifiers will be played in New Zealand in
January 2014. Prior to that, there's the World Twenty20 Qualifier in November
in Dubai, and both captains said their teams' focus would not shift to that
tournament. "Before the World Cup Qualifier, we have the World Twenty20
Qualifier and that's an equally important tournament," Khadka said.
"Preparation-wise, we have to have a strategic plan from now on because it
is a big step - one more step and you are in the main global tournament. So we
have to think from that perspective."
Nepal cricket team will arrive Nepal on Wednesday and Cricket
Association of Nepal (CAN) will soon announce cash prize and will welcome the
team and there will be winning rally.
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