Nepal beat Eastbourne Cricket Club by a 181 runs
Raju Rijal and Binod Bhandari walk out after the end of first inning of the match between Nepal and Eastbourne Cricket Club at the Saffrons on Sunday July 17, 2016. Photo: Raman Siwakoti
Nepal beat Eastbourne Cricket Club by a 181 runs in their final practice match during the preparation tour in England on Sunday.
Nepal started the match without skipper Paras Khadka, vice-captain Gyanendra Malla, Karan Kc and Sandeep Lamichhane as they were all given a rest for the match against the Marleybone Cricket Club scheduled for Tuesday.
Shakti Gauchan was the captain for the match.
Nepal elected to bat after winning the toss. Subash Khakurel was dismissed early for six runs meaning an early blow for Nepal.
Anil Mandal make 73 runs on 110 balls. Mandal rotated the strike well and Sharad Vesawkar led the charge against the Eastbourne bowlers. Vesawkar scored 60 on 57 balls by hitting 1 six and 6 fours.
Raju Rijal joined in after Vesawkar was dismissed and played well to make 300 run mark. Raju contributed 60 runs while Binod Bhandari make 77 runs on 53 balls. Nepal scored 300 runs at the loss of three wickets after the accumulated 50 overs.
This was Nepal’s best performance with the bat so far in their tour of England.
Chasing 301 runs to win, Eastbourne had hoped for a positive start but, Nepali bowlers did not give them any chances whatsever to settle down by picking wickets at regular intervals.
Eastbourne was bowled out for 119 runs in 34.3 overs by the discipline bowling of Nepal. Rawlins top scored 44 runs off 42 balls for the home team.
Basant Regmi and Sagar Pun shared two wickets each to their name while Shakti Gauchan and Bikram Sob picked up a wicket each.
Sompal Kami led the charge and claimed three wickets giving away 15 runs in his 6 over spell.
With this comprehensive victory, Nepal extend their unbeaten run on their preparation tour of England.
They won all of their practice matches ahead of their game against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at the Lord’s on July 19.
Earlier, Nepal had defeated the Free Foresters, the Indian Gymkhana, Club Cricket Conference in their previous practice matches.
Nepal’s performance in their practice matches so far gives them a good momentum prior to their World Cricket League Championship matches against the Netherlands scheduled for August.
