Stage was all set for Nepal. A narrow escape on Match against Honkong, Lucky win against Kuwait and thumbling performance against Saudi Arab. To add on it, smashing performance from Saudi Arab to see Nepal through to semi Final and to world t20 qualifier. Despite all these excitment, deep inside all Nepalese supporters were feeling, "can we really compete with Afganistan" (as commentators were now and often stressing the fact that they are much experienced side). Still there was hope floating around (more than 10,000 people were on ground to witness a mirracle and show their support)
Game started with one hour delay due to fog (it still suprise me how Kritipur gets fog and pulchowk does not, is it Nepal government's fault (lol)). Reduced over of 16 per side. Toss happens Nepali captain wins the toss and elects to bat first. Our section of audience, we were ready to witness history made on small room of Oklahoma City's apartment, had one thing to say "what the f***?". Low sunlight, foggy atmospher, heavy outfeild and strong Nepali bowling attack and we decide to bat first. "Is it a psychological block that our players were experiencing against strong Afganistan team." One of my friend said "if they can not handle this much of pressure on home soil with support of huge Nepali crowd how would they perform when they have to compete against more experienced and quality sides?" So true.
As we were expecting Nepal folded to 69 runs of 16 over. Thanks to resistance of Captain Paras Kadka who made 29 ball 30. Still there was hope as we always say Nepal's bowling is much stronger then batting, let's forget of feilding as my throat is still sore screaming seeing Nepal droping three catches on 2 overs against Saudi Arab (flashback of Divison 5 match against Jersey where Nepal bolwed out Jersey for 17 runs where Mehaboob Alam took all 10 wickets).
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| Nepal are folded at 68, NTV PLUS streaming shows it to be 69 |
But to everyone's suprise neither Mehaboob Alam bowled on this game, neither Nepal looked like winning it. Game all started to change on 4th over when Karim Sahiq started to hit Binod Das (the most experience Nepali cricket) to all parts of ground. 21 run off one over. Match was all gone off Nepal's hand just question was how long can it be dragged. Eventually Afganistan reached target with 40 balls to spare.
Why did captain decided to bat first on such overcast condition? Why did he gave ball to Binod das when he could see Basant Regmi (a spinner) was giving nothing from anther end? What was Mehaboob Alam doing (remember he didn't bowled on match against UAE which Nepal eventually lost)? Captain have many question to answer. So our batsmen. Score card that looks like an international telephone number (3,6,0,30,2,10,1,9,0,0) does no good to you as a player or as a team, no matter how big of an opponent you are playing against.
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| Afganistan March toward Victory - IMAGE FROM OUR PROJECTOR |
What has happen, is done and dusted. Nepal still plays 3rd place playoff against another team who at least gave fight against Afganistan on group stage, Oman. Nepal have to raise their standard of play. Otherwise as one of my friends said "I believe UAE should have been given chance, they would have atleast made an effort". Might just be true.
Nepal have four months to answer their problem, correct their mistake and starting to think competative. March 2012 would be a big month for Nepali cricket team and Nepali Cricket. Let's look ahead and start to address our problem. There is always second chance, but let's make best use of it.
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