Cricket
Nepal will return home from the Africa Safari with their one-day international status on the line after a disastrous series under the ICC World Cup League 2. They failed to register a single win in the triangular series involving hosts Namibia and Scotland.
Nepal suffered an eight-wicket defeat to Scotland in the fourth and final tour match in Windhoek, on Thursday. This is the first time in six League 2 series that Nepal have failed to win a match.
With 18 points to show off from 24 matches, Nepal lie sixth in the table, only above Papua New Guinea in the seven-team competition.
The top three sides qualify for the World Cup Qualifiers, while those finishing within the top five retain the one-day international status.
For Nepal, maintaining the ODI status appears to be an uphill task after the Namibia debacle.
They will have to win at least nine of the remaining 12 matches to finish within the top five. Nepal play two of the remaining three series at home. Nepal have four matches to play each against the UAE and Papua New Guinea and two against Scotland and Namibia.
Scotland sealed the victory, finishing on 121-2 in just 17 overs.
Former captain Kyle Coitzer fell for 16, when Scotland began the chase. But George Munsey and Christopher McBridge combined well to take Scotland closer home at a scorching pace.
Munsey scored 45 runs off 28 balls with seven fours and two sixes before he was trapped leg before by Dipendra Singh Airee. McBridge remained not out on 46 that was laced with seven fours off 40 balls. Captain Richard Berrington supported him till the end by adding 12 runs.
Gulshan Jha and Dipendra Singh Airee took a wicket apiece for Nepal.
Earlier, Nepal won the toss and elected to bat first. But the side’s batting continued to frail against Scotland attack and were bowled out for 119 runs in 35.3 overs.
Captain Rohit Paudel was the lone bright spot in an otherwise sorry Nepali batting. He made 47 runs, hitting four fours and two sixes in the 57-ball knock before being the eighth wicket to fall in the 26th over.
Nepal’s poor batting came to the fore once again. Opener Arjun Saud fell for a duck in the third ball of the innings and Asif Shaikh followed him in the next over after scoring just one. They were reduced to 16-3 when Gyanendra Malla was out for nine runs.
It was all downhill for Nepal and despite late efforts from Dipendra Singh Airee (14), Sompal Kami (16), Lalit Rajbanshi (11) they failed to come close to the 200-run mark.
Scotland's Brendan McMullen, Safyan Sharif and Mark Watt picked up two wickets each.
Nepal reached closer to that psychological 200-run mark in their opening match of the tour against Namibia, scoring 197 runs. But it was abandoned due to rain.
The second match saw another sub-200 total. They could have scored more than 137 runs against Scotland, considering that they lost only three wickets in the process.
On Wednesday, once Namibia put up a challenging total of 275 runs Nepal was always struggling. The hosts won by 86 runs.
Thursday’s victory has virtually guaranteed Scotland the League 2 title. They now lead the League 2 table with 46 points after 32 games. Oman are second with 44 points, followed by Namibia (37), USA (35) and the UAE (27).
Nepal have suffered defeats in five out of the last six matches. They have two wins from 12 League 2 games in the last six months. Eight of them ended in defeats, with one finishing in a tie and the other one being abandoned due to rain.
