26 - Packed up !!

Captain of Nepal (Right) with Captain of Bangladesh.
Pic Courtesy: ACC

5th day of Women's Cricket Tournament at 17th Asian Games 2014,Incheon,South Korea didn't turn out to be favorable for Nepal Women's Cricket Team. Call it hard luck or a bad day, the figure 26 was disheartening. Result was predicted by many of us as Nepal was playing quarterfinal against the stronger side, ODI and Test playing nation Bangladesh that took part in last edition of t20 Women's World Cup on 2013. But no one guessed the scorecard.

Chasing the target of 108 runs in 20 overs, Nepal Women were all packed for 26 runs in 15.2 overs.Nepal scored 16 with bat while 10 extras being the only double digit figure in a scorecard. Nary Thapa stroked two boundaries with top class shot-as commented by espncricinfo but fell victim of Bangladeshi Captain as she was dismissed for 8 runs.

Restricting Bangladesh to 107 was appreciable. Sita Rana Magar and Sarita magar took two wickets each for Nepal. However, Nepal could not stop opener Ayasha Rahman who scored 51 not out off 60 balls and played a vital role for Bangladesh Women innings.

In group stage match, Nepal lost to Thailand with 6 wickets.Nary Thapa and Mamta Chaudhary built a partnership of 30 runs and guided Nepal to the total of 64. Non other players were able to score a double digit figure. Target of 65 was chase able for team like Thailand who has been coming up strong and progressive in recent years. Thailand won ACC Women's Championship 2013 and played ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier where they finished fifth defeating Zimbabwe in Shield Final.

Nepal played brilliantly against Malaysia restricting them to 42 to win a match by 46 runs. Sita Rana Magar 18(41), Mamta Chaudhary 22*(29) , Sarita Magar 12*(15) help build Nepal Women innings.Golden arm Karuna Bhandari who took hattrick on her international debut on 2011 performed magically once again to give Nepal a secured win over Malaysia. She took 4 wickets with a bowling figure of 3.5-1-6-4 and economy rate of 1.56.

As per the Statistics (for Nepal only) , 15 years old Mamta Chaudhary scored most runs with 39 runs in 3 innings and also scored the highest with 22 not out. Sarita Magar became the highest wicket taker with 5 wickets and Karuna Bhandari had the best bowling figure of 3.5-1-6-4 in an innings. Mamta Chaudhary and Sarita Magar recorded highest partnership with 38 runs.

Nepal Women Team despite of lack of training and infrastructures, inadequate practice matches, poor management, no national selection with handpicked players, fought hard for the pride of a nation. Respect to the Team.