By Mercy Kosgei
It was a tough day for Nepal in the 38th match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Legue 2. The bowlers could not defend enough the target, where USA beat them by 3 in Dallas. Despite a massive 286 for Nepal on the board, USA clinched the victory in the last over by 291.
Nepal was confident having beat USA 2-0 in the 3 match T20I series the last time the two sides played. Nepal had won one game in eight ICC CWC League 2 fixtures.
Captain Monank Patel of USA team utilized five bowlers and one wicket each shared for 3. Monank Patel 62 (76) collaborated with Shayan Jahangir 104 (97) and the duo had 161 runs for the second wicket. Only 17runs were needed by USA in the last two overs.
Shayan Jahangir was named player of the match for his hundred after he scored 104 (97).
Harmeet Singh scored 57 off 44 stitching a 71- run collaboration with Shadley Van Schalkwyk 29 off 37 balls taking team USA closer to the target.
Captain Rohit Paudel scored 96 runs from 75 balls and his team made 286-10 in 50 overs but Paudel missed his well- deserved century by 4 runs. Batters Anil Sah 56 (62) and Aasif Sheikh 52(53) added 98 runs in the first wicket. Aarif Sheikh made 37 runs.
USA having played and won 6 games out of 9 in the tournament, the seventh win in the tournament puts them to sit at the 2nd position in the points table. In the nine matches Nepal has played, they lost in the seventh time to put them in the seventh place in the point table.
USA Cricket posted on their social media X saying,” Some brilliant performances with the bat today helping team USA secure their 1st win of the CWC League 2!”
On Tuesday, Nepal will face Scotland in the next match while Thursday’s game USA will play Scotland at Grand Prairie Stadium.
