Faiz looks for positives as Malaysia end campaign with defeat to Nepal |
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22/04/2021POSTED BY Malaysian Cricket Association Admin |
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MALAYSIA ended their campaign at the Bajaj Pulsar Tri-Nations T20I Series in Kirtipur on Thursday with a third defeat in four matches as hosts Nepal ran out winners by 69 runs. Nepal posted a challenging 217 for seven, their second-highest score in T20I cricket, as Karan KC fired a brisk 45 to add to Aasif Sheikh's 42 and Khushal Bhurtel's 41 with Anwar Rahman, Fitri Sham and Syed Aziz Syed Mubarak picking up two wickets each. Aminuddin Ramly slammed five sixes to top score with 45 runs but Malaysia could not recover from slipping to 65-5 as Sompal Kami, Kamal Airee and Sandeep Lamichhane claimed three wickets each to bowl Malaysia out for 148 in 19.1 overs at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground. The match had been rendered academic after Malaysia's tie with the Netherlands on Wednesday which allowed the Dutch to advance to Saturday's final against Nepal, who finished top of the table with six points. Malaysia, 31st in the ICC T20I men's rankings, finished bottom of the standings with one point from four matches after losing their first two matches to the World No 17 Netherlands by 15 runs and 15th-ranked Nepal by nine wickets. "We had a good bowling session early on, unfortunately, we gave away 60-odd runs in the last four overs. They had too much on the board and we couldn't chip away with our batting," said Malaysia captain Ahmad Faiz Mohammed Noor at the post-match presentation. "They played well and their bowlers contained us well. We were under pressure with just one point, and the consistency is not there. Nepal played better than us today. We will take the positives from the four matches here to the next tournament." For the second match in a row, Ahmad Faiz won the toss and chose to field. The side featured two changes from Wednesday with Ainool Hafizs Yatim and Dhivendran Mogan replacing Shafiq Sharif and Pavandeep Singh while Virandeep Singh took over wicketkeeping duties. Wafiq Irfan Zarbani broke up the 33-run opening partnership when he bowled across outside off-stump to Khushal Bhurtal, who edged to Syed Aziz at first slip. But Gyanendra Malla and Aasif Sheikh punished several loose deliveries to build a stand of 73 runs for Nepal's second wicket before Malla lofted an Anwar Rahman delivery to Wafiq. Malla exited after blasting four sixes and a four from 25 balls for 41 runs. Anwar claimed his second wicket four balls later to reduce Nepal to 111-3 as Aasif was sent packing leg-before for 42 after hitting three fours and three sixes off 32 deliveries. Fitri Sham also claimed two wickets in an over as Nepal slipped to 148-5. The first came after Binod Bhandari (8) miscued a shot for Sharvin Muniandy to make a running catch near deep midwicket and the second as Dipendra Airee advanced down the track for an outside edge towards Anwar Rahman at third man. Karan KC entertained the crowd gathered on the slopes outside the ground by hitting seven sixes, including three in a row off Dhivendran, for a quickfire 45 off 13 balls as Nepal accelerated towards 200, thanks to a 66-run partnership with Kushal Malla, before Syed Aziz ended the final over with two wickets. Malaysia's reply got off on the wrong foot as Kami trapped Syed Aziz (4) leg-before after four balls and then dismissed Anwar Arudin (6) before Ahmad Faiz and Virandeep set about steadying the innings. The pair put on 43 runs for the third wicket before Faiz (31) fell to Bhandari after hitting a six and four fours from 21 balls. Malaysia's highest successful run chase in T20I matches was 176 against Hong Kong but did not look likely to better that after slumping to 65-5 from nine overs when Kamal Airee snaffled two wickets in five balls by having Sharvin trapped leg-before and Virandeep (13) caught in the deep. Aminuddin got the run-rate going again by slop sweeping Sushan Bhari for three sixes in the 12th over as he dominated a sixth-wicket partnership of 50 runs with Ainool before falling to Lamichhane's leg-break having compiled 41 runs off 18 balls. Lamichhane caught Fitri (14) off his own bowling after getting a top edge to a googly and bowled Ainool (11) to finish with three wickets for 42 before Kami dismissed Dhivendran for his third wicket. Kamal Airee wrapped up the innings with Wafiq's wicket to finish on 3-16. BRIEF SCORES Nepal 217-7 in 20 overs (Karan KC 45, Aasif Sheikh 42, K Bhurtel 41, Syed Aziz 2-4, Fitri Sham 2-32, Anwar Rahman 2-37) Malaysia 148 in 19.1 overs (Aminuddin Ramly 45, Ahmad Faiz 31, Kamal Airee 3-16, S Kami 3-20, S Lamichhane 3-42) RESULT Nepal won by 69 runs |
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