In the ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier played in the United Arab Emirates, Nepal had a close-wicket win over Thailand with just three runs’ separtion. The match was played between Nepal and Bangladesh on 10 th November, 2024 where through strict hard work and nice strategies, young Nepali cricketers successfully defended only 112 runs.
The Nepalese team batted first after they had won the toss but they struggled early on. The Nepali batters were constantly under the pressure, mostly due to the relentless pace of the Thai bowlers. Still, under these circumstances Kaptein Kritika Marasini, scored a fighting though unspectacular 35 of 42 balls thus giving stability to the whole group and the team.
Marasini was helped by Shriya Poudel who added useful 28 runs. The two formed a great understanding, which allowed Nepal to come back from a disastrous start and set a good total. This was also seen by the lower order contributing some odd useful boundaries towards the end and taking the much needed total to more than 100.
The Thai chase started on a high note, with the openers seeming to have settled well against Nepali bowlers. But the Nepalese spinners soon took the game into their own hands, grabbing wickets at essential intervals. The bowler of the match was Manisha Upadhyaya, who took three wickets at the cost of 18 runs in her four’spar.
When the match had entered into the last over, Thailand was needing 12 runs with only three wicket remaining. It was good to see that both teams struggled hard for every run in the game. Nepal’s effort was aggressive in the final over when they squeezed 8 runs of Thailand to win the match by the narrowest of margins.
The win has really opened up Nepal’s chances of qualifying for the ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup. With this, they have kept their unbeaten run in the tournament and thus well placed to claim one of the two qualifying berths from the Asia region.
Coach Binod Das highly appreciated the team’s fighting spirit and composed behavior under pressure. Today, our girls were so characterful.” Never one small total is defendable. Still, the choke did just that and executed everything we mapped out. This win will give us tremendous confidence as we advance towards the next stage of the tournament, he added, addressing reporters after the game.
This victory has made the cricket fans of Nepal jump with joy and they congratulated the team in the social media. The Nepal Cricket Association has also promised financial bonus for this squad as they celebrated this great achievement in this closely contested match.
Nepal is to play its next match against the United Arab Emirates on 12th November. A victory that would have cemented their place in the U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup which will be a significant boost to women’s cricket in said nation. Many young females in Nepal crave to become like team members, and the popularity of cricket will occur when the team qualifies for the World Cup.