Scotland’s men put in a below par batting performance on Wednesday and they were punished by Nepal who beat them in the Cricket World Cup League Two clash at Titwood.
The Scots went into this one off the back of a solid victory over Namibia on Sunday at the same venue while Nepal had lost to the Namibians on Monday at Ayr’s New Cambusdoon ground.
Nepal won the toss in this game at Clydesdale’s ground in Glasgow and Scotland, with Adrian Neill coming into the team for Chris Greaves, were asked to bat first.
The first wicket fell at the end of the second over when Matthew Cross was caught behind for 2 off the bowling of Sompal Kami.
When Calum MacLeod (13) and Kyle Coetzer (6) soon followed him back to the pavilion it was 22-3.
Mohammad Aadil Alam then took the wicket of Scotland’s top scorer from Sunday – George Munsey – and when skipper Richie Berrington was caught behind off Kami for just 3 it was 33.5 from 10.1 overs and the hosts were in real trouble.
Michael Leask was the next batter to fall cheaply for 4 to make it 46-6 and although Mark Watt and Safyaan Sharif made 16 and 17 respectively, it was left to Gavin Main to at least get Shane Burger’s men up over the 100 mark with help from Neill and Hamza Tahir.
Main, more known for his bowling, made 64 not out from 59 balls including seven 4s and one 6, but he ran out of partners and Scotland were 144 all out after 42.5 overs.
Young Aadil Alam was impressive with the ball for Nepal with 3-31 while Kami ended up with 3-40 and Sandeep Lamichhane chipped in with 2-35.
Seamer Main then led the way with three wickets in Nepal’s reply, but one of his victims – opening batter Aasif Sheikh – stood firm long enough to make 71.
Rohit Paudel then took up the mantle towards the back end of the run chase and his 34 not out from 31 balls calmed the visiting team down and eventually saw them home by five wickets with plenty of overs to spare.
Neill and Berrington were the other Scottish wicket takers, but Nepal made it to 146-5. Main’s figures in the end were 3-46 with Kushal Bhurtel and Dipendra Singh Airee his two other scalps apart from Sheikh.
And Sheikh was named player of the match with his aforementioned 71 runs coming off just 62 balls while he was also tidy in his role of wicketkeeper and took two catches behind the stumps.
Scotland do not have long to wallow in this defeat because they are back at Titwood on Thursday to play Namibia (11am).
