Nepal overcame a spin bowling unit in Kathmandu on the second day of the Premier Cup final, securing their spot in the Asia Cup 2023.
It was a brilliant move by Rohit Paudel and Monty Desai to move Gulshan Jha up to No. 3 in the batting order, where he was able to first handle Aayan Khan’s left-arm orthodox and then respond with a variety of strokes.
The 17-year-old scored 67* as his team chased down 118, a target made difficult by the strong spin-bowling squad from the United Arab Emirates, the slow conditions at Tribhuvan University, and the looming danger of rain in the capital.
Having left UAE at 106/9 on Monday, Lalit Rajbanshi picked up right where he left off on Tuesday, claiming the final UAE wicket with his own left-arm orthodox bowling to finish with 4/14 (7.1).
Sandeep Lamichhane, a leg-spinner, took 2/34 (10 wickets) at the other end, extending his wicket-taking streak to 33 matches.
The Emiratis put their quicks, Zahoor Khan and Junaid Siddique, on ice early on and went straight to their spinners, beginning with their own 17-year-old, Aayan Khan.
After fellow finger spinner Kushal Bhurtel was dismissed by Aayan for just one, Mustafa removed Rohit Paudel for one by forcing a mistake and then chopping on to make the score 22/3.
Jha started out cautiously but eventually pounced on several overpitched deliveries, hitting many sixes down the ground after watching two wickets fall at the other end.
When leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan erred in his lengths, he pounced, smashing him for 14 runs in the span of just three balls.
The flurry relieved the pressure on the batting side, and the doubt that had silenced the normally boisterous Kathmandu audience faded away.
UAE tried their luck with fast bowler Zahoor, but runs kept coming in during Bhim Sharki and Jha’s stand for the fourth wicket.
Jha celebrated his fifty by hitting Aayan over long on the ground for six, bringing the scores even, and then winning the game by paddling the next ball behind square on the leg side.
Bhim scored 36 not out, and together they batted for 96 runs without losing a wicket. The Asia Cup is scheduled for September, and Nepal will fill up Group A alongside India and Pakistan.
Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman qualified for the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup in July by finishing in the top three at the Premier Cup, where they will compete against the ‘A’ Teams of five Full Members in the region.
