NEPAL extinguished Malaysia’s hopes of winning promotion from the World Cricket League Division Three after winning by 36 runs at the Selangor Turf Club yesterday to qualify for today’s final against Uganda.
Malaysia needed to beat Nepal to have any chance of reaching the final but collapsed to 142 runs in 43.3 overs before rain halted Nepal’s reply at 89-2 after 25 overs though they were comfortably ahead of the target under the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Nepal and Uganda, who downed Bermuda by seven wickets, both clinched promotion to Division Two while the United States and Bermuda were relegated to Division Four.
Malaysia will meet Singapore, who beat the US by 33 runs (D/L method), in the playoff for third and fourth places today though both teams will remain in this division, which will be played again in 2017 as part of the 2019 Cricket World Cup qualification.
Nepal, who also defeated Malaysia by five wickets in an ACC Premier League match in Klang in May, put the hosts into bat after winning the toss and it turned out to be a wise decision as opener Anwar Arudin (69) saw wickets fall like tenpins around him.
Sheikh Nasir Shafiq (one), Ahmad Faiz Mohammad Noor (five), Suharril Fetri Shuib (two) and Shafiq Sharif (one) were all gone inside 14 overs as Malaysia slumped to 65-4 with only Khizar Hayat Durrani and tail-ender Derek Michael Duraisingam offering any resistance with 23 runs each.
Suresh Navaratnam claimed an early breakthrough when he had Subash Khakurel caught for three but Naresh Budayair (42 not out) and Gyanendra Malla (35) combined for a 69-run stand to steer Nepal to victory.
TODAY — Final: Nepal v Uganda (Kinrara), 3rd-4th: Malaysia v Singapore (Bayuemas), 5th-6th: United States v Bermuda (STC) — Matches start at 10.15am. By Devinder Singh