Nepal suffers five-wicket defeat against Bangladesh in U-19 World Cup

KATHMANDU: Nepal suffered a five-wicket defeat against Bangladesh in the Super Six stage of the 2024 U-19 World Cup at Bloemfontein, South Africa, on Wednesday.

Batting first after winning the toss, Nepal scored 169 runs losing all wickets in 49.5 overs. Bangladesh overcame the target losing five wickets with 148 balls remaining despite Subhash Bhandari’s impressive five-wicket haul.

Nepal made a poor start with the bat as opener Bipin Rawal fell in the fourth over with just 18 runs on the board. Nepal lost two more wickets in quick succession and was down to 3/19 in the ninth over. A 62-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Bishal Bikram KC and Captain Dev Khanal resurrected the Nepali innings. Nepal, however, lost wickets at regular intervals after Khanal fell in the 28th over. He scored 35 runs from 60 balls. KC then added 30 runs for the fifth wicket with Gulsan Jha, who was out scoring only three runs. He scored 48 runs from 100 balls. The last-wicket pair of Durgesh Gupta and Subash Bhandari scored 27 runs to give some respectability to the Nepali total.

Borson was the pick of the Bangladeshi bowlers as the right-arm medium bowler took four Nepali wickets. Sheikh Paevez Jibon contributed with three wickets while Iqbal Hossain Emon, Maruf Mridha, and Jishan Alam each had one wicket to their names.

Chasing 170 to win, Bangladesh made a good start as its openers Ashiqur Rahman Shibli and Jishan Alam added 67 runs for the first wicket. Although Ashiqur fell in the 12th over, scoring 16 runs off 34 balls, Jishan continued to torment Nepali bowlers and scored 55 runs off 43 balls. Although Nepal took two wickets, getting rid of Jishan and new batsman Chowdhur Md Rizwan, Ariful Islam hit an unbeaten 59 off 38 balls to take Bangladesh home.

Subash Bhandari took all five wickets for Nepal, giving 44 runs in his eight-over spell.

Captain Khanal said they were short by 50-60 runs. “Couple of guys didn’t play to their potential. Couple of good batsmen are not showing what they can do,” he said. “One last match remaining. We are looking forward to ending the tournament on a positive note.”

Nepal will play its second match of the Super Six stage against India on Friday.